This is a long Blog - ninety pages - 439 KB, so you might find it best to: Edit (top of the screen), "Select All", Copy, open a new Document, Paste, and Save in your own computer. Although this is somewhat of an adventure story, there is a long section on archaeology, and another on European Art History. The characters are fictitious, and bear little or no resemblance to actual people, apart from historical references. Originally written for a friend, who was released on Police Bail, following a shooting crime and a shoot-out with the Police.
“THE MENORAH FRAGMENT”
"I WAS NOT LOOKING FOR GOLD, ONLY SPLITTING A
PIECE OF WOOD"
"SPLITTING IMAGES"
"THE WOOD-SPLIT"
"THE FRAGMENT"
"THE MAN WITH THE UGLY FACE"
"IN TABLETS OF SILICON CHIP"
"THE BROKEN BRANCH"
"THE BRANCH OF LIGHT"
"GOLD IS DANGEROUS, ANCIENT GOLD EVEN MORE
SO"
"ENVIRONS OF A SAFE HOUSE"
"THE SAFE HOUSE"
"SAFE HOUSE FOR A THINKING MAN"
"THE CIVILIZING OF A CIVIL ENGINEER"
"THE
MAN WITH GREEN HAIR" Perhaps it was colour of his hair jell, or the effect
of the cigarettes he smoked.
“THE
ILIAC CREST” The distinctive left and right crests of the pelvic bone, which
create the hip contours.
Chapter One The Hit
I had decided to show the flag: by turning up, and
by wearing the University sweat shirt - albeit unwashed; and this, only because
it was the Vice-Chancellor's Day, during the time when most of us were waiting
for Results. This
was in the last decade of the twentieth century.
For a sunlit university corridor, it had a
remarkable level of aesthetics: light cream ceiling, subtle grey walls, to a
metre from the floor, and a warm grey mauve below. There was no graffiti; legend had it that three offending
students had been sent down, back in the mists of the last century. In reality, the porters, the real pillars
of any university, had a good stock of the architect's paints and nothing to do
in the hours of darkness. Between
windows and doors there was a splendid collection of original art.
So you don't like my name! I share it with several thousand other Joe Wilsons around the
World; here again, I bear a banner - for all the others with nondescript
nomenclature, who feel that adventure can never come their way, and that only
the Waynes and Ryans of this planet will enjoy life. Allow my current girlfriend to join me; she is one of the
numerous Kate Smiths, not even aspiring to a "y" and an
"e". Let me tell you, we are
both pretty flush with money, for students.
My father is a qualified architect, who, in his late thirties, turned to
lecturing firstly, and the development of computer assisted designing,
secondly. The aim was: given any
exterior and any function, the program would do the rest and put the two
together. He teamed up with a talented
programmer, and after five years of hard work they were in possession of their
first million, with more to follow.
Kate and I had a game: to see how many ways we could find of relieving
our parents of worries regarding fiscal excess. I made one hundred and fifty thousand; she reached thirty less;
giving little and taking much.
My friends require me to say I am slightly above
average height, rugged, with a mass of dark wavy hair, and ugly. Kate will not sue, if I say she is below
average height, has dark blond hair, a round olive-tanned face, and is
chubby. (I take a break, to stop my
nose bleeding from the cuff!)
Kate's family are Cheshire - somebody has to live
there. Given a fair choice we all would! Here is the dichotomy: we both
go around looking like Huckleberry Finns, and yet we are upper-middle class at
home. I'm Lancashire - just outside
Preston.
Kate has three horses; she rides and dances with the
Hunt. I join in the latter.
So here I was: walking slowly down a corridor to the
McVitie Hall. I could see "the
goodly number of kindred spirits".
Dr Rashid Dior, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Andrewsburgh, was
at his most unorthodox and flamboyant.
His reign had commenced several years before, and in the ambition to be
different - he had ever succeeded.
From styles of clothing to topics of speeches and outlandish ideas, he
constantly amused himself: the student body reacted in a state of rigor mortis. His perpetual and worthy topic was
anti-racism; but considerably harmed the cause by proving he was the worst
offender north or south of the Hindu Kush.
Various "found objects" - O hideous cliché
of Art Teachers! had been deposited in the Hall, along with a wide assortment
of machines and tools. Technicians
abounded to protect the student corpus.
Dr Dior had already initiated proceedings; most of the students had
gathered round a heap of Cumberland slate blocks. The idea was to cut them down in size, and fit them together in
a huge circle representing the Sun.
Earth forces, or even stellar powers would sense this, and benedictions
would perhaps be directed on the establishment. Who was to say it would not gravitate curses; but that was
against Dr Rashid's unique rules of fair play. I had not noticed life being strikingly fair, in my brief
twenty-two football seasons.
A typical bunch of degree year ladies walked in just
after me: the type that is well built, and wears their hair and their dresses
long. The Pre-Raphaelites would have
been in their seventh, or is it third, heaven?
At least they are better than the woolly-witches of last year's
Freshers. I hesitated long enough to
notice a stunning stainless steel circular saw, with a 120-millimetre diameter
blade. I secured it before anyone else
fell to covetousness.
An earnest assistant assured me, it would slice
anything. I found an ancient looking
piece of timber - dark brown, and mysterious in colour, and quite heavy. It was a metre and a half long, rather like
an over-weight archaic railway sleeper, but wide at the base. I tested the efficiency of the electric
saw. It sang beautifully and revealed
the inside of the wooden block. This
was only slightly lighter in colour than the surface, which appeared to confirm
its great antiquity. I could say that
it appeared to groan when I made the cut, and that it had a sense of
personality, anticipation and power.
The facile Dr Rashid most certainly would have; but it did not, nor had
it any of these qualities. For no
reason, other than perhaps several years of bliss in the Scouts, I reached for
an axe.
Had Kate arrived yet? I paused. There she
was: articulating a grimace from the middle of a large group of
non-participating Second Year Fine Art students, of her own intimates. I lifted the axe. The block was steady, and awaiting another division. I had seen how the grain went, and, like
Michelangelo with his marble, aimed a splitting blow with the felling axe. The fall of the axe was the pivot on which
my life turned.
The block split with unnatural ease. The inner wood, which had never, in the
whole of time, seen the light of day before, stared at me like an ashen
face. It even had eyes: round bulges,
that is. A shape slowly disengaged
itself to my perception. It was
decidedly silver-gold in colour, and brilliant. I was looking at a short curved tube, with the two bulbous
swellings, like pomegranate fruit! and broken at each end. It measured half a metre. It must have been surrounded by the growth of
wood, hundreds of years ago. I was
stunned; so were the other students; and a "meaningful" silence
descended.
"E, you've got something there lad!" said
a real or mimicked, northern voice. I
pulled my sweatshirt off, over my head; prised the object free; and wrapped it
up, with care.
In the melee that followed, I walked, almost
unnoticed, to the end of the Hall, down the steps to the Toilets and the Locker
Rooms; and locked it safely away. That
was the most sensible thing I had ever done in my life, up to that date.
When I returned, Kate was quickly at my side with
the air of a Minder.
("Ouch!")
"I'm off to the Library," I said, "
...see you for Dinner this evening.
I'll pick up the wine!"
There were many quiet, almost hidden corners, in the
light Edwardian-Gothic building. The
current edition of "New Civil Engineer" was just in, and
processed. I had plenty to work on, in
preparation for starting my MSc with the next academic year.
At five twenty-nine precisely, I left the precincts of
the University, crossed the park towards the flat, and picked up the wine and
some nuts, at the corner shop. Kate,
or The Kat as I call her, would have an interesting meal ready. We had shared my flat for the last six
months; each evening she called the answering machine at her flat to see if
anyone had called - in particular her mother.
I admired a rare design of car at the end of the street: dark glass, the
bodywork and spoilers finished in dark silver. It looked mean and extremely fast.
The arrangement was, that I would receive a car after the Results, and
learn to drive during the long vacation.
This specimen would be out of my range for the first choice, but just
right after a year of two in work.
As in most Scots cities, there were fine stately
residential buildings, several stories high, and stone fronted. I pressed the buzzer, spoke into the
microphone, and the bolts slid quietly.
Chapter Two.
The Second Hit.
After preliminaries, we ate and talked. My exit with "The Find" had made
me several enemies. The Vice, for one;
there was great potential in the episode, and he had missed another chance to
have his portrait delivered with the morning papers.
Kat told me how she had avoided the limelight, but
had sifted the flow of information in McVitie Hall for me. All "work" had stopped. Of primary importance was, who had sent the
block of ancient wood to the Hall in the first place? The city had several synagogues, and a fine, well-funded
Department of Semitic Studies at the University. Its Professor, one Dr Achish Abraham Rosenthal, had thrown the
block out, during a clearing of his rooms.
He was in Newcastle today, and expected back with us tomorrow. Two rather brilliant post-graduate students
of his, did more than represent him.
In just over an hour there was an impressive display of Jewish artefacts
along one side of the Large Hall.
After three hours, a score of large illustrated coffee-table books on
archaeology had been added. A simple
diagram radiated red silk tapes to the appropriate photographs. The theory put forward in all this was,
that my discovery had some connections with the Menorah - the elaborate
seven-branched candelabrum of the Temple in Jerusalem. The date would be the first century
AD. One of the photographs showed the
Triumphal Arch of Titus. We checked
the caption at a later date: "A last testimony, carved in stone, to the
costly vessels of the temple at Jerusalem stands in the heart of the ancient
Roman Forum. It is a relief on the
inside of the triumphal arch, which was erected in honour of Titus, the
conqueror of Jerusalem. The Arch of
Titus itself, through which the procession is passing, can be seen on the right
of the picture. After the general -
the victorious Titus - has passed through, Roman soldiers follow on, wearing
laurel wreaths and dressed in light tunics.
Among them march manacled Jewish captives. The Romans are carrying on their shoulders the spoils they have
acquired in Jerusalem. Each group has
a placard bearing the name of the particular item of plunder... The second placard indicates the
seven-branched Candlestick - "And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure
gold... And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof..." (Exodus
25:31,37)."
Dr Werner Keller.
Kat had remembered most of the details. She was familiar with the architectural and
artistic side of the bas-relief. Some
of the figures in the carving were damaged, but the objects were crystal clear. The quotations referred to ancient times, but the carving in the forum is obviously still there and dating
from the first century AD. I knew from
reading Tacitus at school, that Titus had later become Emperor.
Everything had to wait for Professor A. A.
Rosenthal: on his return tomorrow.
We tried the TV channels: watched part of a useless
chat show, and what was supposed to be the American Charts. After that we provided our own
entertainment until nearly mid-night; at which time we were both almost asleep
on the settee.
All buildings possess their own noises - old and
large ones certainly do. The people
above, those below and on either side, have recognisable signatures. Then there is the plumbing, the heating
system, and various other pieces of equipment. Even the district around contributes. But before mid-night there was a noise from the next room which
stood out - like a ham sandwich at a synagogue tea party. It was slight and steel-like, and suggested
the blade of a knife. I uncurled
myself, made for the door, and found a quiet empty bedroom-cum-study. The window was unfastened, and open a
millimetre; someone had been in, who should not have been. I always fasten windows tight or have them
fully wide open. A movement in the
flagged courtyard, which separated our block from the next, suggested the dark
metallic finish of a fast car. Nothing
was apparently missing, except my peace of mind. I rang the police. They
did not bother to come round, as nothing had been taken.
Chapter Three The Invisible Professor
The Kat was out early for her morning run. At lunchtime she was meeting Lucille, a
friend from last year, who was teaching in a local school. So we did not see each other, and I left
for the precinct, and the library in particular. The whole business of"The Find" left me strangely cold and
detached. It could be
something-and-nothing, or it might be truly remarkable; there was time enough
for excitement. The Union Building was
deserted, but I thought a visit to Semitic Studies was called for. The two Jewish fellows, of the graphic
display, were there, hopping about in a state of great agitation. They had 'phoned their Prof at his hotel in
Newcastle last evening. Today he was
neither here, nor in Newcastle, and he had not slept there last night - not in
his hotel, at least. Too bad! I spent the morning in the library.
Three minutes past noon: "Visit the Locker
Room, and see the goods," seemed reasonable. I opened the metal door - with its traditional graphic ornamentation,
which would have told my Tutor more about my personality than any number of
"chats" in his rooms. I was
holding the door open when there was a loud metallic"Ching!!!" as the door struck against my
hand. A new element in the design had
just appeared: in the form of a neat 9 mm hole from a High-Power pistol, a Mk
2, a BDA, or something, if I learn anything from reading novels. For no reason at all, I grabbed the
sweatshirt and its contents, and ran for the exit furthest from where the shot
had been fired. Outside, the sunlight
and the lunchtime crowds were wonderfully reassuring.
A burger and a beer in the Union later, I strolled
down to the park, where Kat was to meet Lucille. I could see her sitting alone in the bright sunshine, beyond the
trees. Lucille had still to
arrive. I stopped; by the side of the
park, I could see the dark silver car.
They were watching Kat to see if I was meeting her. The whole pattern of events was instantly
in place, and closely related.
Parallel to the path, and behind the shrubberies to my right, ran a dry
concrete culvert - about a metre and a half deep and a metre wide. I dropped down, and sprinted, crouching, to
the end near the park gates. I hailed
a taxi, and felt safe.
Gresham Gresham Spine - not many of those south of
the Arctic Circle, and a Bachelor of Law, at that - was my destination. We had become friends at the crease: in a
record partnership against Durham, the University that is. He was in his second year with an eminent law
firm, with hopes of being called to the Scottish Bar, eventually. The doubling of his first name is a
tradition commemorating the time when the family married into the Scottish
royal family, he says!
The city at this point had a strange Parisian look
about it: the high dignified edifices, representing three centuries of talented
and well endowed architectural design, and the elegant shops and restaurants
born of affluence in some quarters. I
dived from the taxi, put my hands together in mock prayer to his secretary, and
was sent in with a sweet smile. I
hurled the most incoherent collection of data at him, shook violently, and
passed out.
Chapter Four
The First Miss
The next comment should be, "When I came
round." It was more-or-less like
that, except that Gresham Gresham, did some clinical thinking on what he
thought I had said. When I "came
to", he had formulated plans A, B, C, D1 and D2. On hearing a more historiographic recounting of the story, he
apparently did little by way of amendment.
Three cups of tea and a plate of cream cakes later, I was ready to
listen - reclining as on a “psychologist's couch”.
"A. We
must tell the police. But not any old
police: I have a good friend who will be sympathetic, and get to work right
away. Leave that to me."
"What about Kat?" I asked.
"That's my next point."
"B. We
have to let The Kat know within the hour: of the danger she may be in. I'll do that now; don't worry."
He was a few minutes before leaving, but I heard
voices and the slamming of the rear door.
When I squinted into the outer office by opening the door slightly,
there was a young girl from another partner's suite holding the fort.
G.G. apparently took his secretary to pass the
message to Kat. She followed fifty
metres behind him. He found Kat, half
way between the park and the Union, merely raised his hat to her, and hurried
on. The secretary then came up and
asked her for directions to the Library.
It was no trouble for Kat to take her there. As they passed inside, a tightly folded note was slipped into
Kat's hand, with the caution:
"Read it later!"
The short letter read: "Dear Kat, do not show
any other emotion, than pleasure. Joe
is in my care and healthy: in an arranged 'safe place'. An attempt has been made on his life, and
you may be watched also. Things are
not as simple as they seem. It must be
to do with the gold object. Can you go
into hiding with a friend, perhaps Lucille?
I will reverse into the Union rear yard at three-thirty, dive into the
back seat, and, as we draw out, get on the floor under the travel rugs. More when we meet.
Affectionately, G.G (PS Destroy this note thoroughly.)"
He came back to the office, and his secretary
arrived a few minutes later.
"Now, point C," as though he had not been
away, and no time had passed: "We
must keep your 'Gold Piece of Seven' safe." He took it, sweatshirt as well, to a strong room concealed in the
basement of the office block. Letting
me see exactly where it was being placed.
His point D1 was to hide me!
"I have a pied-a-terre in the roof; it’s yours,
but you must not show a whisker.
Secondly (his point D2), we must get you disguised!" I was taken to the back hall, and up the
long flight of steps to the loft room - right up against the eves of this high,
eighteenth century building. The
window was set in the wall more than two metres above the floor, giving the
impression of a prison. I could stand
on a chair and just catch a glimpse of normality at the foot of College
Road. I was totally alone - there
was no Kat!
Chapter Five
A second miss
True to his plan, Gresham Gresham was in the
tradesmen's yard at the Union by three-twenty, and The Kat was early too. He took her, in her unnatural position, to
a secluded wooded area, to give her a chance to sit up and stretch; then on to
the school, where he went in search of Lucille. It was an hour before she was free from a staff meeting. He drove to her home, and saw Kate safely
"booked in". He continued by
car to his own home, and travelled back to the office by bus. We talked groceries; and he did the rounds,
carrying the food back in his document cases.
He had forgotten something to drink, but made up for the lack on his
second trip out.
I slept well, in this pretty, flowery pink, rather
effeminate, room - his sister had done it out for him. At eight o'clock sharp, there was a knock
at the door of the little flat; Gresham ushered in a theatrical friend. Sport and theatricals are cheek and jowl to the
barrister's trade, you know!
"We're going to change your face for the
better, young man."
"That should be easy, even with my eyes
shut," quipped his friend.
When I looked in the mirror an hour later - he was
right! He trained me in taking off, and
in restoring the disguise. A new
colour of hair, a ginger beard to match, and pads in my cheeks; I walked with a
limp - with a stone in my shoe. I
tried it on Gresham down in the office, but he was not fooled. The first day of enforced retirement dragged
on. I went over possible plans for my
research and subjects for a thesis - should I have to choose that mode of
study. I wondered a lot about Katie,
and listened to various frequencies on a small digital radio. Gresham's friend in the Police had advised
that there should be no announcement of my disappearing; this would only alarm
my father, and the antagonists would either know already, or not believe it to
be genuine, anyway.
I ate well, to say who planned the meals;
nevertheless, I could see Kat's influence on my choices. The second and third days passed. On the fourth, a little damp note from Kat
arrived.
The university would now be well aware of our
disappearance, as we were a conspicuous pair of "cooing doves".
Gresham Gresham was a constant source of
discouragement; it was an attitude he was developing with his clients, I
think.
"You need to keep fit, old boy. It'll be safe to have a stroll after ten in
the evening. But don't take any risks,
and keep an eye over your shoulder."
I prepared for a couple of miles round the blocks,
wearing Gresham's old tracksuit, and with the stone in my pocket. My plan meant leaving by the rear
entrance. I started along the
pavement. I suddenly fell - perhaps my
health had deteriorated more swiftly than I imagined. No, it was the several pairs of arms, which were bringing me
down in a rugby tackle. A ski mask the
wrong way round immobilised my vision, whilst strong fabric straps, pulled
tight, and tighter still, took care of my arms and legs. We were all inside a vehicle by now - the
kind of van used for delivering fresh towels to office blocks, I suspected by
its smell. We travelled round in circles,
I think, to disorientate me. There
were three armed captors, I realised from the various pokes in my sides. They took it in turns at eating. Once on the open road, my mask was taken
off - theirs remained on. One arm was
occasionally unfastened, and I was offered some bread, cheese and bottled
spring water. We stopped twice,
in secluded dark places, for fresh air
and a friendly tree.
Several times, when we were near civilization, I was
gagged and fully bound again. The
single refuelling stop found me fully tied up and sat on. I saw no point in resisting, yet; so
conserved my energy by sleeping.
I woke because of a sound like the crack of thunder:
we had hit a cattle grid. The road was
now of the unmade kind. The van banked
like a light aircraft responding to the grip of a student on his first attempt
at level flight. Faint light from the
sky was coming through the translucent panel in the roof, and we were
travelling southwards, but this was after motoring for over six hours, in
who-knew-which direction. We slid
about on the road for the greater part of an hour, slowing down to negotiate
awkward stretches, and stopping for gates to be opened and shut. At one point we ran through a ford on the
edge of woodland, before plunging into the relative darkness of the trees.
We skated to a halt. My ski cap was pulled on again, back-to-front, and the fabric
straps checked for tightness. I was
lifted "bodily", out into the sunlight and coolness of early
morning. The smell of the open country
- a farm or moorland, or both - caused me to feel some unbalanced drunken
elation. I was taken into a building,
which had the smells of capable cooking.
My "ambulance men" stumbled along a corridor like idiots,
barged their way into a small room - going by the muffled sounds we made - and
dropped me onto a single bed. I almost
rolled off, in the hope of unsettling them.
They made their first mistake: I could just make out their relative
heights silhouetted against the open doorway - two were short and stocky, the
third was also broad of shoulder and about 30 mm taller than myself. I remained tightly bound. They left carrying their guns - still over
their shoulders and banging against the wall as they went. By rubbing the ski cap against the bed, I
made it come off, and it fell to the floor.
The van was driven away at high speed.
After an hour - registered on a bedside clock - the
door opened with an eerie slowness. I
was quite helpless, sitting on the edge of the bed. Round the edge of the door came a face: the stern intelligent
face of a countrywoman, who, even allowing for the deceptiveness of facial
features, had to be relatively kind.
Without a word, she placed a huge tray of "English
Breakfast" on the table under the window. A hand motioned for me to stand and turn with my back to the
door - face to the window. A slipknot
was pulled, but before I could spin round, or move in any direction, the key
turned in a new and sophisticated lock.
My first act was to untie my feet; the second, to
inspect the window. Behind the curtains
came the glass, but beyond that was a wonderfully strong metal shutter, set
with gaps to allow light in - its inside gear had no key in the locking
device. I glanced at the meal and felt
hungry. A question dominated my
thoughts: I wondered if Katie was safe, and not too lonely. Perhaps I would be able to escape soon, or
rescue would come. On the other hand,
neither might happen and I would become one of the World's missing people, whom
even the Salvation Army could never find any trace of, or my skeleton be
discovered in a hundred year's time by property developers. With such cheerful thoughts to keep me
going, I reached for the spoon. As I
pulled the porridge nearer, an envelope became uncovered, which brought my
blood rapidly to the boil. The writing was Gresham's!
Chapter Four The Country Life
"Dear Joe,
The guns were stage props! First rate acting, don't you think? ... chaps from the Dramatic Society in
Prestatyn. Mrs Gresham is my widowed
Aunt, who married into my mother's side of the family. Please be courteous to her; she is
sacrificing health, safety and reputation, to save your neck - hopefully. If anything goes wrong, run southwards. Yours never again, when all this is
sorted out! G.G."
The next few days were bliss, or more likely fool's
paradise. Wonderful meals, fresh air,
country walks, bird watching, thinking, reading, planning, pining for The Kat,
and worrying occasionally about the Menorah Fragment. The cottage belonged to a farm complex set on a hillside. There was enough meadow for a herd of
Jersey cows for milk production, but the surrounding moors were home to a huge
flock of sheep, over three thousand.
These kept Geoff, Mrs Gresham's son, both busy with their constant
ailments, and troubled in his conscience on receiving Government subsidies for
sheep kept over twenty metres above sea level - High Level Compensation
(HLC). Behind the cottage was a system
of crags, which had been quarried in times past; in the vicinity, scattered over
the hillside, were trees, mainly conifers, and bushes of holly and gorse. I made myself extremely familiar with the
terrain, in case a quick escape was necessary. The general area of country was high and mountainous. Between these glorious mountains were deep
fertile valleys, and in one of them was the nearest town Machynlleth - it
sounds like Ma'hunthleth (unless you can articulate it in Welsh) when
pronounced by Mrs Gresham, Maud to her friends. I had been taken to deepest Wales.
Maud spent much of her time up at the farm helping
to sort the eggs, ready for the woman who called with a wagon twice a week. Geoff brought in the shopping of a regular
kind. His wife Janet was a tall
country lady, with a longish face, red cheeks and an otherwise inconspicuous
appearance; but compassionate, sensitive, gracious, and a most constant valiant
and powerful support. Maud let me
borrow her late husband's watercolours, and I produced several reasonable
efforts from the start, which would impress The Kat. One of our school’s Art teachers wondered that I could even
"draw" my breath! The same
teacher had the habit of looking over your shoulder at a portrait and saying,
"You know, you've got a funny nose." This went well, until he failed to notice that a girl had
sutures the length of her nose from a recent operation; she smiled sweetly, but
he was cured.
On certain days, slim shapes sped low over the tops
of the mountains, followed by an explosive roar. This was an area for aircraft making low-level cross-country
navigation flights, and military manoeuvres.
Several kilometres down the course were firing ranges for the Air Force
and the Army. The sound of firing
reminded me sharply of the shot in the locker room, and gave me a feeling of nausea.
I had spent almost a week of such bliss, when a
letter arrived from Andrewsburgh. The
envelope made it look like a legal communication. Inside were two letters - one for Maud and the other for
me. There was no mention of Kat -
rather like putting bromide in my tea.
"Dear Fugitive from who-knows-what, There is no real news, so far."
How tactful he was at putting me at ease! "The Jewish Professor has turned
up. He claims some men with stockings
over their heads, abducted him from the hotel in Newcastle - so that he could
not recognise them, even if he had known them. He was taken somewhere and interrogated with torture, and
drugged. He had a few bruises round
his eyes and on his back, but blood samples showed no traces of any drugs.
"They had given him their version of The Find
Story, and the implied negligence on his part of not discovering it himself -
although it was a fluke that anyone stumbled on it, certainly you. He was rather dazed, and did not know which
troubled him most: missing the possible Menorah Fragment, which, if genuine,
would be a priceless treasure; or being kidnapped and tortured - if he was
telling the truth. The police working
on your case have given him a lot of attention, and will continue to do so no
doubt, even if covertly. Enjoy
yourself, Gresham G.S."
I persisted with exploring the region, studying the
maps in the cottage, which were detailed and recent editions, and painting
parts of it as I went. Visitors -
perhaps Gresham - had obviously used the room. An old framed photograph propped up on the cabinet, showed the
road leading to the farm, and two girls - one leaning against her bicycle, and
the other pretending to ride hers.
They wore long dark skirts, white full blouses and straw boaters on the
top of long dark hair. In the distance
stood a horse and cart, and beyond, in a photographic haze, was the farm in its
Victorian condition.
Chapter Six The Thinking Time
The weather deteriorated, and we settled down to a
static low-pressure system. I ventured
out on rare occasions, mainly for fresh air.
Most of the time was spent sitting by the window, and I was slowly
becoming used to the quietness, which had been painful at first. My tally of different bird species quickly
reached thirty. Buzzards, Redstarts,
Wheatears and a Jay, were the most colourful and interesting. I found a dead Jay by the main track to the
farm, and pulled out one of its blue-ribbed, wing-covert feathers to keep. The coloured bars on the feather, went from
black, through blue, to a beautiful pale blue - almost white; half the feather was shaded in fawn.
I thought a great deal about Kat. We had been together for almost six months
- the first live-in relationship for both of us - I think! I had been introduced, or displayed, to her
family in Cheshire during the Easter Vac.
We had rooms at opposite ends of the house, and played games: that we
did not know whether the other liked cornflakes, and showed surprise at habits
and personal traits. We exhibited a
general ignorance of each other, which was far from true, even by April. Was our relationship a good idea? It had certainly kept our circles at the
university entertained for two terms.
Her cooking was good - not always what I would have chosen, but
invariably of a much higher standard.
There was much more washing-up for me to do. The amount of clothes and ironing about the place stung me, and
her books and drawings spawned throughout the flat. Jeremy's girl was just the opposite, her ideal was an empty operating
theatre - she even made him pick up his dandruff! Kat's friends were always round for intense arty chats; I felt
sickened sometimes, when I knew it was the drugs talking with a few of them. I tagged along to the Rylands Library
during the Vac - so she could research her thesis - and walk endlessly round
thousands of clothes shops, in Manchester and Chester, without buying anything,
unless it was back to the first port of call.
My friends came now and again, but I liked Kat to myself, usually. I
had to adjust to the differences between dream and reality as far as the life
of romance was concerned, and start to learn much more about how the weaker
gender worked. (Ouch!)
In the opinion held by my old Religious Teacher, we
were in fact married, in the "jungle sense". Someone once said: "When a man comes
home from work he has two things on his mind: food and sex, but not always in
that order." I soon found, that
as a reasonably normal woman, Kat did not react in any sense as I, a man,
did. Would I ever come to terms with
the differences? When we broke up, one
of us was going to be hurt, and there might be intolerable jealousy. Our commitment was the total of human
involvement, and there would be nothing easy about contracting out of it. We had experienced, not only the most
intimate of our physical entities, but something deeply intense, and of the inner
domains of our personalities. Other
relationships would probably mean agonising comparisons, and conflicts in
self-giving. Statistically, it was
obvious to my generation that a single partner would wipe out all sexually
transmitted diseases in a generation.
We feel that they are anything but "social", and the
euphemism, "socially transmitted", is tragic.
Life together could last a long time. I remember father asking great grandfather,
as they watched television together, "At what age do you stop noticing
pretty girls?" "Let me know,
if you find out," was the old man's reply. Before one of dad's parties, I was kneeling on the floor behind a high backed
settee - fixing a compact adapter to his new entertainment complex - when an
elderly couple came in and sat down.
They presumed they were alone, and talked freely about their life
together; how, even at their archaic time of life, they were still discovering
new aspects of intimacy at all levels.
Would Kat and I ever tire of each other, to the point at which we would
part?
I reckoned it was easy for us men, to be less than
sincere and honest in our present kind of set up; the "look for a more
up-to-date model" excuse comes all too frequently. Numerous live-in arrangements lasted only a
few weeks. For some men, it is only a
utility lodging, or simply a good time at the girl's expense; when, in effect,
she is conned into thinking a true and genuine friendship is developing. I had read the famous Dr Clifford Adam's
summation of what people look for, and in what order:
MEN
1.
Companionship
2. Sex
3.
Love-affection-sentiment
4. A home
and family
5. A help
mate, and
6. Security
WOMEN
- Love-affection-sentiment
- Security
3. Companionship
4. A home and family
5. Community acceptance, and
6. Sex last
Too much swapping around would lead, ultimately, to
one of the "nasties" being passed on. In spite of chats to Freshers, the university had a steady
dropout rate caused by "unsociable diseases". Students from certain countries, around the
world, were given special attention by the Medical Officer's staff!
From the discussion of morality, the obvious
question was: what about religion? For
me the argument of Evolution had ended it all. In all discussions, Evolution proved there was no need for a
God figure, and even the idea of God, was something we had evolved out of in
any case. I accepted, however, that
the concept: Religion has caused a lot of the trouble in the world, was a
non-starter. Usually in these cases,
religion was "a front" for personal, tribal or political ambition.
Evolution niggled me. When we were little boys at school, someone had told us that
extremely complex Creation needed a designer and a maker - for example, a
relatively simple instrument such as a watch.
It was like looking at a major construction programme, and refusing to
acknowledge the design skill of the civil engineers and the work of their
contractors. God was both civil
engineer and contractor rolled into one.
The princess who kissed the frog and gained her prince, had a head-start
on Evolution.
There was a fellow in the Sixth Form who used to go
round muttering "Entropy", until it became his nickname. Entropy is the principle apparent in
Nature: that the system is running down, rather than developing and building
up. And that was where Professor A. E.
Wilder-Smith came in. His old book on
"Cybernetics and the origin of life", which I found one day in the
school library, put an end to all easy escape routes. Evolution failed in so many ways to meet the requirements of
systems analysis (cybernetics), as was pointed out in this book. A much-revised edition of Dr Nicholson's
"Metabolic Pathways" hung on the Biology Lab's wall, as a mute but
intransigent witness to the chemical complexity and design, of human
existence.
Then there was Linguistics; evolution would easily
be proved here. Primitive human
language and animal noises would be first cousins; unfortunately, this is not
the case! Primitive tribes are a
million miles away from even the most advanced primates, and in fact have the
most complex communications known.
Language simplifies with development and civilization. Even the Head of English, who was an
atheist, and an Oxbridge linguist, admitted the force of the evidence here.
Statistically, Evolution was relegated to the realms
of impossibility. Then again, in an
evolutionary process, how did creatures survive in a vulnerable, and partially
developed state, as they passed from an early unviable form to a later
development? I had to concede that Evolution was an inadequate
Theory, and in reality it had to be a kind of Religious Belief.
An envelope arrived from London, which had
originated from Gresham, and travelled via a friend there. My result was a Second Class Honours,
Bachelor of Engineering, but there was no possibility of my attending Degree
Day. This would be extremely disappointing
and confusing for my Father. I could
not imagine what thoughts would go through his mind apropos my disappearance,
unless the police had contrived to invent something.
He had not been well on my recent visits home. My real Mother had divorced him thirteen
years ago, and later married an Argentinean businessman, whom she had met in
the solicitor's office where she had found secretarial work. They had both gone to live in Buenos Aires. There were regular letters, and in one of
them, in 1992, she told me of her conversion to evangelical Christianity,
through listening to Billy Graham, the aged American preacher. The interpreter at the meetings, had worked
for a missionary society called "Operation Mobilisation", and she had
become an avid supporter of their work around the world.
Father had provided me with a constant procession of
"Mothers". The present one,
about the twentieth, is called Myceny.
When we met, I thought she was a North American Indian, or perhaps just
arrived from a Washington Redskins's game at which she had shown her dedication
by colouring her face. Her complexion
was a combination of personal taste and modern science. To be kind, her choice of clothes was good:
usually a cloth with a black background, and patterns in primary colours. Her slight chance of surviving long in the
house meant that I took little notice of her.
This made her furious whenever we met.
I could see she was heading for disappointment, and it must have been
apparent. On my last trip to Preston,
both of them had some kind of bad cold: coughing, tummy trouble and tiredness.
Chapter Seven
What is really happening behind my back?
I decided to give up my disguise, which came as a
great shock to Maud. The loss of my
limp lessened her sympathy for me. Two
more letters arrived from G.G.
Mine read: "Dear Worrier, You now have cause
to. My office has been burgled! Three safes were blown open yesterday,
which was Sunday. A helicopter, the
markings of which no one seems to have noticed, ... white or silver, was
disturbing the city centre air space.
The alarm system was blown out, under cover of the noise, as were the
locks on the safes. They discovered
nothing of any significance!
"This means that the Adversaries have found
your taxi driver, and traced you here.
The police tracked him down this morning; he had already given
information, after recognising your description, to some men posing as CID
officers.
"Maud must no longer live at the cottage, but
take sanctuary at the farm - permanently.
The mice are unhappy (a cryptic reference to Kat being well). Read the enclosed (a page from "The
Students' Union Weekly").
"You will be kept under surveillance. The following are passwords, for the next few
weeks, each starts at mid-night on Saturday.
Tell Geoff, Janet and Maud.
"PASSWORDS.
Onedin (the rest of this week), then Diolkos,
Tripos, Quad, Cinque, Siesta and Septuagint.
Keep out of sight - within reason.
Yours, never again, Gresham
PS I hope it will be all wrapped up soon."
The article from the Students' Union Weekly
THE GREAT UNIVERSITY MYSTERY
Dr Cosgrove, of the Forestry Research Division, has
told our reporter that a possible scenario could be as follows. If the Romans sacking Jerusalem in the
first century AD broke the Menorah, and it fell into a cavity between large
blocks of stone, as in fact comprised the architecture of the Jerusalem Temple
built by Herod the Great some years earlier, and it landed in the fork of a
tree growing at the base of such a cavity, as the tree, over the years,
struggled towards the light of day the Fragment of the Menorah could have been totally
enclosed by the tree, in the growing process.
My colleague Dr Chapman, who is in Australia at the moment on an
exchange, is a far greater authority on this area than myself. I hope to consult him on the issue in the
immediate future. We await further
opinions."
A further comment followed:
"Josh Isaacs, who is engaged in research at the
Semitic Studies Department, points out that this would imply that, although the
Arch of Titus bas-relief shows a complete Menorah, the real object at the time
would actually have been incomplete.
This constitutes a significant discovery. Though, as yet, we cannot know which part was broken, if it is
indeed of the true Menorah of this period."
Chapter Eight
There is more to a farm than meets the eye
Geoff's pretty little daughter Eve had left the day
before I had arrived - to enjoy life at an adventure camp in North
Yorkshire. Maud was settling into her
vacated room, for the time being.
Geoff was well-built, tallish, and about
thirty-seven. He had a fair beard, and
a face, which reminded me of a young Henry VIII. He was not unlike Mike Gatting - the old English cricket
captain, or, if you like, Mike Barber of the Los Angeles Rams in the NFL; or
even Andrew Davies the orchestral conductor, in his younger days. When the next Sunday was almost upon us, he
called at the cottage for a chat.
I had not to worry about money, too much. All the clothes I needed could be bought
locally, and paid for later - if I was in agreement. My real need was for a personal music centre and some of my
favourite recordings, I explained! He
then turned to what seemed to be his main problem, and what a week earlier
would have been one for me too. He and
Joan belonged to a religious group called the Christian Brethren. Normally they met in Machynlleth
(Ma'hunthleth), but because of "Hostilities", they would now have to
gather as a little family for worship in the farm. I told him that Religion had recently come to hold more interest
for me, and I would enjoy deeper discussion.
Perhaps we could even have an hour or two's talk, some time. He kept a poker face, but I realise now,
that nothing could have cheered him more, or seemed a more welcome answer to
his prayers.
I tried to look dressed-up, when I walked up to the
house on the Sunday morning. The
service was unusual - showing that Christianity was far from formulaic - in
that much of the time was given to private prayer and meditation. We sang a few hymns, listened to Scripture
readings, a short talk and prayers by Geoff.
Both the ladies wore hats. A
loaf of bread was broken and a chalice of wine passed round - by arrangement, I
was missed out.
Later, the ladies presented a huge meal. Geoff was a graduate farmer, and he had won
a scholarship to study in New Zealand.
On the flight home the plane had stopped at Bangkok. Joan had taken the only vacant seat, which
was next to him! Her parents were
missionaries in Thailand.
After lunch he showed me his guns, but explained
that he would be reluctant to use them against humans. However, he would defend his family if need
be, and that included me. He did in
fact take a shotgun and a few cartridges to shoot magpies.
"Although I think these birds have a beauty all
their own - my brother's baby almost had his eyes pecked out by one of the
beasts, two Augusts ago, so I have a profound dislike for them." He checked the large tree for other birds,
but magpies attract few neighbours.
With a cartridge I only had to hit the tree. My shot brought three down - the parents and one immature.
Another pest were crows: they killed his young lambs
by eating out their tongues, or their eyes, when they were newly born. They had attacked even a large ewe; her
shoulder was torn through to the bone.
Recovery had taken several months, and they were still reluctant to
leave it alone.
"Now that's my first question. If God made the world, and I grant you there
is plenty of evidence of design around, why is there also, so much disharmony
in this Creation?"
"Indeed, yes, not only among animals and birds,
but also among humans. Well, the
answer is The Fall. The Book of
Genesis, in the Old Testament, contains the story of Creation. And incidentally, yes, I find six days for
God to make the Universe, or at least to order the world and create its flora
and fauna, hard to believe; I wonder why the God of the Bible took so long!
"After the making of it all - in the first two
chapters of Genesis - there next came man's Sin. And following that: 'Cursed is the ground because of you.' Even in the cursing of the earth, and the
expelling of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, God was providing a covering for them, Atonement: in
the covering of skin, which came from what must have been the first sacrifice
for sin. As they walked out of Eden
for the last time, leaving the cursed snake behind them, there was this token of
God's care, as I say, in the covering of animal skin - to replace the fig
leaves, which they had provide for themselves. In our time, we must take care not to make false coverings for
our sins, such as: vain explanations or excuses, or untrue religion."
"I suppose God doesn't want us second-hand; He
would like to have us brand new, pristine - unspoiled again."
"Quite so!"
We walked to the edge of the moor. A predator Hen Harrier was literally
harrying the stretch of moor from side to side, hunting for prey. "Nature is red in tooth and
claw," I thought; but it was also wonderfully beautiful - as the Wheatears
perching on the walls ahead of us, in a half-hearted attempt to hide,
demonstrated.
We were almost back at the farm before he spoke
again in his avuncular way:
"One common illustration - which is not offered
as proof of course - is from the children's nursery. We walk in and find the alphabet bricks almost spelling out a
statement, but just a few are out of place.
The Mother had helped the little child to write a sentence, but during
the night the child had gone to the toilet, and caught some of the bricks with
her foot. The main sentence is still
more-or-less clear, but some of the letters are out of place. So in Creation, there is the evidence of a
design, which has, at some far off date in its history, been wrecked by God's
necessary judgement on human sin at the Fall."
Chapter Seven
Brush and Binoculars
With the help of the late Mr Gresham's binoculars, I
was not only able to pursue my bird watching, but also to watch for various
other activities. The farm stood near
the head of a small valley, which led down to that of the River Dyfi, near
Machynlleth. The track that led up our
small valley, passed through a few camping areas and caravan sites, and higher
up through farm communities. All the
buildings were of grey Welsh slate and stone, with ridge tiles of the standard
dark salmon pink.
The farm below ours was typical in its
untidiness. Next to the farm and its
few holiday cottages was a field, which was like every farmyard the world over:
there was the litter of decades, if not centuries. Here I could see a stack of unused telegraph poles,
unidentifiable iron contraptions of long forgotten uses, an old fibreglass motor
launch, a rust covered museum-piece tractor - without wheels, an assortment of
trailers and wheeled vehicles, and of current use: three cattle wagons, tree
trunks, bundles of barbed-wire, old wheels, and plastic containers and bags of
a multitude of shapes, colours and contents.
The Foxgloves and Thistles gave a semblance of Nature's hope, and
persistence.
Geoff's farm was decidedly tidier and his fencing
was near perfect - with green stained posts and the same discreet colour in the
protective covering of the wire; but the hills still bore the scar tissues of
farming over centuries.
The holiday cottages at the farm below interested
me. A family permanently occupied one,
with one boy aged about twelve. For
the first three weeks of my life at the Farm, his mother took him down the road
to catch the school bus at the bottom.
The mother was a portly lady with a long ponytail of blond hair; the son
had similar coloured hair. At the end
of July the schools obviously broke up, and he was often to be seen playing
around the farm - with the farmer's two girls and a friend from lower down the
little valley. His father drove a dark
green Range Rover, went out to work each day, and often wandered into the lower
pastures in the evening, to shoot. His
quarry would be crows and foxes.
Four of the cottages changed hands each week or two
- with holidaymakers - and I tried to work out what kind of people belonged to
each party, and which cars they drove.
One property filled up each weekend with its owner's party.
The last bungalow was different. I thought at first that the two or three
youngish women were on holiday; but they remained. The one I saw mostly, went out running each morning and evening,
wearing a shiny khaki tracksuit. It
seemed strange, that on the warmer days she did not come out in shorts. Her build, and some of her leisure clothes,
suggested that she was quite a fitness fanatic, if not a bodybuilding type. To my surprise, I saw her one morning
leaving for work; she was a Traffic Warden!
Take my advice and don't mis-park your car in Machynlleth.
A second youngish woman was the bird-watching-hiking
type; she appeared to be on holiday, but never showed up on our land. Twice I caught a glimpse of a third
occupant: a tall dark-haired woman, who only appeared at dusk. The first two had flowing sun-bleached
hair, and reminded me of Kat. I
doubted that she would be as athletic at their age: more like her stocky built
mother, I suspected. I remembered the
old RE teacher saying that most girls would grow up to look like their mothers;
a statement which was received, by the girls in our class, with screams of
horror, whilst the boys fell about laughing.
They would not be laughing in fifteen years time. He had another style of provocation: when
the girls returned after lunch, smelling of the Boots Scent Counter samples, he would ask, "Is
that your perfume, or has someone been spraying fly killer?" I heard that a girl, who collected bugs and
beetles, shot him down in flames: "Do you know what I use to kill my
entomological specimens with? ... My
father's aftershave!"
I enjoyed the diversion of a distanced entrance into
the lives of ordinary Homo sapiens.
Chapter Eight The Reconstruction
We had now reached the fifth week since the start of
the hostilities in my life, and the second of the coding - the password was
"Diolkos", if I met anyone who appeared in any way suspicious. Also, I must practice writing B Eng (Hons)
after my name!
That Thursday, I went outside to work on a
watercolour of the Farm from the west side.
There was a problem with the foreground, which fell away, so my decision
was to fade the picture in - from the bottom quarter.
An area of short grass led down to the stream at the
ford. Beyond, the land rose to the
cottage, and the track followed on to the farm buildings behind. To the left, the main building looked onto
a terrace, which gave a pleasant view into trees and down the little valley. To the right, three other buildings, of odd
proportions, were joined to the living quarters by a short wing pierced by a
narrow covered passageway. It looked
aesthetically pleasing, but had far too many dark corners for my own sense of
safety, in the circumstances. The
scene was framed with old trees: conifers taking over from deciduous. On the right hand side of the buildings
were the crags and the variety of bushes.
There was just a sight of the distant tops and mountains.
The time will arrive soon when I can develop
abstract paintings from my original sketches.
It was quite a good drying day for watercolours, but I needed a break
after a couple of hours, and I sat back in the shade. My mind eventually came
to thinking about something long overdue: who were my Adversaries?
There had been bullies at school and university:
scholars, teachers, even lecturers and students - I had even been one myself -
but none dedicated to killing me. It
was not a nice thought. The idea of an
Enemy perhaps stalking me even now made me want to vomit! How good was the surveillance, if it was
there at all?
I wrote this list in the back of my sketchbook:
Spot the Enemy?
1.
International Mafia - this was unlikely
2. The
Jewish Professor - surely he had some respect
3. The
Israeli Government - hardly lacking in abrasiveness, but unlikely
4. An
Israeli Terrorist Group who had been "sleeping", as they call it, at
the University - quite likely
5. An Arab
Terrorist Group trying to create problems for Israel - too complex for the
speed of events, but who knows?
6. Antique
smugglers - a little too much like a thriller
7. The
Vice-Chancellor of the University
8. The
whole thing was a product of my imagination brought about by food poisoning, or
I was dreaming
9. It was a
continuation of the student rag, or some other unpractical joke
10. Some
fool on drugs - desperate for money
11. A. N.
Other!
The hole in the locker door, and common sense, did
away with most of these ideas.
I turned to painting again. A surfeit of clear water drew the shape of
a tree. I introduced a dark tone made
up of Prussian blue, crimson lake and chrome yellow. It ran all through the watery shape giving it meaning. This would be a sermon illustration to
Geoff's mind - how God filled an empty life with colour and meaning - I must
tell him about it.
In the afternoon, I went for a run on the moors,
having almost reached the end of work on the painting. As always I kept alert, and not for the
first time saw a glint of glass reflecting a shaft of sunlight - probably
someone using binoculars, innocently or otherwise.
In the evening I listened to music; but my mind
wandered to thinking about the Enemies and how far the police had made progress
in their investigations.
The following morning Geoff called before eight.
"Have you seen the news on television? The police have allowed the press to find
out that you are missing."
I watched at lunchtime.
Against film of the University precincts, the
newscaster announced:
"Following the discovery, several weeks ago at
Andrewsburgh University, of an unusual archaeological find, a student has now
been reported missing, along with the find - which might be valuable.
"He is thought to have travelled to the north
of France with his girlfriend, and police on the Continent are keeping a
careful watch for him in the region of Caen and Houlgate, in Normandy. This follows the reception of two postcards
from him, by his father Mr Quentin Blakley-Wilson - of Croston-under-Style, near
Preston, Lancashire - the well-known Architect." There followed a remarkable photograph of me with a suede
hairstyle - taken during my first year in the Sixth Form, and obviously touched
up by a police artist to bear no resemblance to me whatsoever, should anyone be
still searching. A photograph of a
girl, who was certainly not Kat, followed quickly.
The Vice-Chancellor then had his turn, and
succeeded, with his usual aplomb, in saying nothing important in three minutes
of hectic monologue.
I reflected that any attempt to throw the Antagonists
completely off my trail was likely to fail.
A press release saying The Find had been sent to Israel, or delivered to
the British Museum, could easily be checked.
I had apparently chosen the wrong time of the year
to grow a beard; my face was always hot - it itched and became spotty. At last Geoff took pity, and told me the
trick was to keep it wet; the cooling effect of the evaporating water, was
uniquely pleasant.
Chapter Nine The First Risk
I was trying a painting closer to the stream. Its shore was mainly grey pebbles and
shingle, backed by miniature cliffs of a dark sand-colour. There was a great variety of rocks in the
area. The stream seemed to have a life
of its own, with the constant sparkles and ripples of its flow. The contrasting tones of the water, made it
seem to stand out of my painting - quite a problem. I always thought, in the early days, that someone might suddenly
appear behind me and whisper the code of the week. It happened - but only in jest. Geoff was coming back from the South Meadow:
"Tripos!"
"And the same to you with angels' feet!"
The three Welsh sheep dogs were close on his
heels. Two ran off to rest. When I accused them of laziness, he was
quick to their defence; the sheep had kept them all busy this year. The dog left at his heels was
"Spot", who was a lean, serious, knowledgeable dog, who only works
with a pebble in his mouth.
First there had been lambing, followed by bushing,
or docking - cutting their tails to keep down the dangers to health, when the
grass was long - shearing, dipping, constant medication, and putting down the
potash and phosphate on the grazing land.
Tractor and a hired caterpillar had done this, as the hills were precipitous in places. Years before Geoff
had done it all by tractor - when he had "more brawn than brains", as
he put it. Next year he would hire a
helicopter from a local firm of crop sprayers. Whole hillsides had been cleared of two metre high bracken,
ploughed, and sown with grass seed, to put the business on its feet. Haymaking had not taken long in the lower
fields, and its product was now in the concrete silage pit, inside the large
barn. There were several healthy
calves in the meadows down the hill.
In the past, radioactive fallout from various
disasters had taken its toll of Welsh sheep.
"Did you know that Chernobyl is the name of a
wild plant, called Wormwood in English?
When this particular disaster happened in 1986 at Chernobyl Nuclear
Power Station, the Russian Christians asked Church leaders, 'Is this the horror
mentioned in Revelation chapter 8?'
When they answered No, the ordinary people took the answer to be,
Yes."
Geoff had been called to a hotel in Machynlleth,
about this time, to meet the Chief Constable and sign the Official Secrets Act;
but he was still in the dark about the real details. I was becoming frustrated about not being able to contact The
Twisted Spine, as his friends called him, or hold any discussion with the
police. I rather suspected that GG's
office would have been closed by now, and his secretaries sent off on long
vacations in the Andes, or Nepal. It
would be too much of a risk - to allow the Antagonists to reach them. I suspected, he would be playing cricket or
golf in some sunny climate.
Kat would be well out of it - certainly not in
Normandy, as the television report suggested - and our parents would be kept in
total ignorance - nothing new for parents!
They would either be well guarded, or holidaying abroad. The tool of the Antagonists I most feared
was kidnapping. A good information
seeker would be checking family records, and probably discover GG's relations
in Wales, eventually.
Geoff arranged for copies of "New Civil
Engineer" to be passed on from a local firm of consultants. He bought me a tilting table, so I could
work on my watercolours indoors. I had
just discovered a new and exciting group, whose records were taking the music
world by storm; musical taste is so divisive that I withhold their name! Life was dominated, however, by theorising
about the Enemies, and how to save one's valuable skin. That is not quite true: I had worries about
all the family and friends who were living under the same dark shadow.
For several days, a low cloud base had completely
engulfed the farm and the terrain well down the little valley. So it was, that I inveigled Geoff and Janet
to give me an evening run in the Range Rover.
I hid in the back, until we were well clear of the valley.
I surfaced as we came into the market town. What a splendid place it is, even allowing
for my enforced imprisonment. The low
clouds hung in the ancient deciduous trees, which graced the surrounding hills. The main thoroughfare - Maengwyn Street -
consisted of the most glorious assortment of buildings. Coloured facades gave a Continental
feeling. Here was a Victorian house
with rich grey slate walls, all the darker with the dampness of the falling
rain. The windows were paned in long,
pointed, six-sided shapes. There:
several timber-framed houses, and, further along, later frontages of Georgian
elegance. At the T-junction there
stands a glamorous clock tower, built in 1873 to commemorate the coming of age
of Viscount Castlereagh, whose mother had married the 5th Marquis of Londonderry.
We crossed the Dyfi Bridge, and followed the estuary
down to the little harbour of Aberdyfi.
On the wide sands by the harbour, I could just make out the first
constructions of potential civil engineers: defences, dams, conduits and
coastal improvements - all would be washed away by the next high tide. Out to sea, there was the hint of a setting
sun behind the watery clouds.
The next day an official letter was delivered to the
Farm. It began: "Dear Mr Wilson,
The local police cannot be held responsible for your safety, if you persist in
breaking the rules by leaving the specified area of surveillance...”
What surveillance?
I would give anything to have a discussion about the latest
developments, with the "local police", though I guessed they would be
as much in the dark as myself.
Geoff pointed out: they had been smart enough to
catch me sneaking out under cover!
Chapter Ten Failure of Plan "A"
We were now into week "Quad", which
started on the 9th of August. I
decided to try the Richard Hannay trick.
A three hour march brought me to a jagged crest,
well to the south. I climbed to the
skyline, and appeared to continue; but in fact doubled back, squirming along a
dung-covered sheep track. There was a
long wait with no sign of life. There
it was: a lone figure worming its way along the sheep path below me!
It was half an hour before he reached me. The disguise was compelling: khaki-green
hat and battledress, binoculars, and three differing cameras draped around the
shoulders. He laboriously climbed
towards my hiding place.
"Quad!
Quad! Quad!" I screamed at him; suddenly appearing a few
centimetres from of his nose. His eyes
showed surprise - to put it euphemistically - they came out like organ stops! With a strong French accent he stumbled out
the words: "I...do not...speak Englis!" turned on his heels, and
fled. The flailing cameras gave him
the appearance of a dancing Hindu goddess.
This called for plan "B".
I woke most mornings to the chatter of sparrows, and
the Musical Offerings of Chaffinches.
Later there would be the virtuoso performances of a wren and a song
thrush.
Although there were many things happening at this
time, I will bring events to light, in the sequence in which I learned about
them.
It was a relief to have a second line of serious
thinking to occupy my mind: that of the spiritual. Before the ethos became really tense at the farm, apropos the
Enemies, I had sent a brief letter to The Kat, in the vague hope that it might
reach her. In it, I mentioned my
thoughts on religion up to that time.
Eventually I was to receive her reply.
Two incidents put me off religion. The uncle of a friend at school had become
mentally run down; he received help and counselling from a Baptist minister in
Copstoke. He was then encouraged to
cash his considerable investments, which were in the form of shares, to finance
a photographic business, with the Baptist minister as manager - the man was a
compulsive entrepreneur. The business
collapsed; the uncle lost all he had put into it. He then placed a second investment, virtually all he had left,
into a farm project. After ten years,
not an Irish penny had been repaid by the Baptist Pastor, although he continued
to live well, and castigate the wicked with eloquence. There was more to the story, but this was
the gist of it.
Second, were the experiences of the old RE
teacher. He was slightly Pentecostal
in his beliefs, and told us of when he had been preaching at the local Pentecostal
Church. The Pastor had thought his
sermon personally critical, and threatened him with a beating up - actually in
the pulpit. Only the extreme age of
the Pastor, had stopped him carrying out his threat! At another Church, the Leader had misunderstood a joke, and
threatened to take the old teacher outside for an ill-matched fight. The women at this Church had been
particularly thoughtless and rude towards his able, but sensitive, wife.
When I talked this over with Geoff, he had a simple
reply:
"Never judge the Star by his Fan Club! You know Paul wrote to the Philippian
Church: 'I thank God for every remembrance of you.' This will be true of most Believers; but I know one or two myself
whom I would rather not have met - particularly the bullying violent ones, the
unspiritual, worldly, and certainly the lawbreakers. They do not show Christ's character to you - rather the
Devil's."
I was surprised to find, Geoff still believed in a
person called the Devil. Somebody
seems to be doing the job, I suppose.
I was coming back from a long walk one evening, when
I saw an unfamiliar car parked in the yard; it was a large black Mercedes with
tinted windows. Unpleasant memories
came to mind, so I waited by the crags ready to melt into the distance.
After a few minutes, a dapper young man came to the
porch with Geoff and waved him a friendly, "Yahi darr". I called in for supper, and found that he
was a regular visitor - the veterinary-medical supply rep!
It was that evening, as we talked about various
subjects, that I realised a decision about religion had to be imminent.
When I returned to the cottage, I added a few more
notes to the last page of my sketchbook.
I could not imagine that the fragment was still at
the Law Practice. This meant that
contacts for the Antagonists were fewer.
They must reckon I have little chance of knowing its whereabouts, by
now. The Jewish postgraduates were
unlikely to be implicated, or in any danger.
In fact, being Middle Eastern, they would stand the best chance of
identifying the Enemies, should they show their faces.
Was the Professor to be trusted? He would be well advised to plead
ignorance, or both he, and his family in Israel, could be in danger of kidnap.
What was the attitude of the Israeli Parliament -
the Knesset? Someone was certain to
have told them by now. Did it contain
those in allegiance with the Enemies?
If so, could they obtain classified information, without revealing their
hand? The whole issue could be in the
hands of the Diplomats.
Had the weak links in Gresham's office been tapped
before the police sent them out of the way?
A terrorist posing as a police officer, could have made conversation in
the front office, and led a young secretary to disclose valuable information,
including my links with Gresham. At
this actual moment, this could be in the process of development: in the form of
searches in public records for Gresham's family and their properties - as I had
previously noted. The police
themselves were not totally leak proof.
All this amounted to one item: myself! Was I some kind of Scapegoat? No, that was the wrong word. Decoy, was more appropriate. The bed on which I was sitting started to
shake; I corrected that impression: I was shaking, which meant at least that I
was still alive. Plan "B"
was even more relevant.
Chapter Eleven A Course in Art History
I now had two reasons for wanting a talk with Geoff:
a genuine wish to argue religion, and, in the melee, to prize a piece of information
out of him. Before I could do this, a
letter the length of a book arrived from The Kat, via everywhere but Alaska.
"Dear..." There followed three pages of unrepeatable intimacy. Her mother had given me a wigging, when we
first met last Easter, about "one" of my letters to The Kat. Mrs Smith should have seen what her
daughter could post in my lunch box; on second thoughts, perhaps not! I bet it was hereditary, anyway.
Then I came to the serious part. The Kat reminded me that her own knowledge
of Religion had been mainly through her parents, and church; school had
provided little Religious Education, and even then it was mainly Buddhism and Hinduism,
with a moral teaching based on what the teachers assumed to be Consensus
Ethics. Her father had joined other
governors in employing a solicitor, who took the Head Master to civil
court. It ruled that he had failed to
follow statutory governmental law regarding the teaching of Religious Studies. The Local Education Authority had to pay
costs, and the Head was later sacked.
His management staff had sobering notes written into their personal
files, for being accessories.
Something else which had not helped, in the direct
sense, was the Lenten Bible Studies taken by the Suffragan Bishop, and held in
The Kat's home - her father was a Church Warden. I was dragged along; actually, it was quite interesting to meet
a real Bishop in "The Purple".
He had a questionable sense of humour, and an even more suspect
theology; that is, if the discussions were any guide. He felt the doctrines in the later writings of the New Testament
superseded those of the earlier parts, which made little sense to me, and
created a forbidding and complicated regime.
Kat's father asked: "If the Bible does not give clear dates for all
its parts, how can you argue that dates are important to its
message?" This brought a murmur
of approval from the group. Bishop
one, Parishioners two.
"I see Jesus as a good man, who realised more
about God than other men, and released more of his soul to God than
others," the Bishop asserted.
This brought good replies from the parishioners, who asked the Bishop,
if he was really a covert Unitarian, and would he like a free transfer to the
Unitarian Church? More seriously: did
he not believe in the Pre-existence of Christ, and His eternal Divinity; what about the Incarnation? Was the Bishop not like the Buddhists; or
the Muslims who say that Jesus is just another prophet? The Bishop liked 'being taken on', but he
was hardly the 'flavour' of the month: Bishop two, Parishioners seven. I thought my recall was rather impressive.
Here is the rest of the letter in full – almost:
There is a wide selection of Art History books in
English, in the university library here, and I brought a brief-case of my own
notes to work on. I thought you might
like to have some views regarding European Art and the Christian Religion.
As artists constitute a fair cross-section of social
groupings and character types, there would be expectation of religious
awareness in similar patterns to society at large: both contemporaneously and
historically.
Whereas, in the past, patronage, always an important
element in artistic fruition, may have been heavily instituted in the Church:
that was no guarantee of spirituality in either the patrons, or the artists
themselves. In the Renaissance, the
Medici family were as corrupt as any, even though allied to the Church, and the
artists led far from blameless lives.
[Do I want this kind of conversation for breakfast?
I ask myself!]
When I finished my research at the John Rylands
Library, in Manchester, last Easter, you will remember my visit to see the
Isenheim Altarpiece, by Mathis Grunewald.
[I must break off here. The Kat had been nowhere, apart from Andrewsburgh, after my
trekking round Chester and Manchester with her in the Easter Vac. We both had good reasons to return promptly
to my place. This statement about her
seeing the Altarpiece was false, and a "put
down". I went quickly to Geoff's
office computer to raise his service provider and Browser, and search the art
world through the Internet. I found
plenty of university libraries, which had reproductions, and details of the
painting and the artist. The painting
is in Colmar - in the Haut Rhin, just west of the French-German border, and
north of Mulhouse and Basel - so that is probably her place of residence. Grunewald was a sixteenth century, German
religious painter.]
Chapter Twelve The next part of the course in Art History
All the extant works of Grunewald are of religious
subjects; over a third of his output relates to the Death of Christ. The Isenheim Altarpiece has nine
panels. It was commissioned for the
hospital chapel of the Antonites, an order of monks dedicated to the care of
sufferers dying of St Anthony's Fire, an incurable skin disease or plague. The central panel is the Crucifixion, and
shows Christ bearing this illness himself; so the patients would see Christ,
truly Human, like them, and bearing their sickness as well as their sin. Of all paintings of the Crucifixion, this
is surely the most moving.
Albrecht Durer is considered one of the greatest of
all the German artists. Durer had
personal links with Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon (through Lazarus
Spengler of Nurnberg), and with Zwingli.
Casper Nutzel was another reformer known by Durer. Also amongst the artist's friends was
Niklas Kratzer, the Astronomer to the King of England and Professor at Oxford,
whom the artist had first met at the home of Erasmus. [I was about to be annoyed with Kat about the lack of German accents; but the I remembered that her Prof told her to ignore them, until she started publishing in professional journals. In changing from one format to another, the binary codes could produce some strange results with accented letters!] Durer not only made a portrait of him [Niklas Kratzer] in Antwerp, but enjoyed
his discussions on Mathematics and Religion.
A letter from Kratzer speaks of the Evangelical Faith, and matters
regarding scientific instruments and drawings of importance to his research:
"To the honourable and accomplished Albrecht
Durer, burgher of Nurnberg, my dear Master and Friend.
London, 24 October
1524.
Honourable Dear Sir,
I am very glad to hear of your good health
and that of your wife. I have had Hans
Pomer staying with me in England. Now
that you are all evangelicals in Nurnberg I must write to you. God grant you grace to persevere; the
adversaries indeed are strong, but God is stronger and is wont to help the sick
who call upon him. I want you, dear
Herr Albrecht Durer, to make a drawing for me of the instrument you saw at Herr
Pirkheimer's, wherewith they measure distances both far and wide.
You told me about it in Antwerp. Or perhaps Herr Pirkheimer would send me
the design of it - he would be doing me a favour. I also want to know how much a set of impressions of all your
prints costs, and whether anything new has come out at Nurnberg relating to my
art. I hear that our friend Hans, the
astronomer is dead. Would you write
and tell me what instruments and the like he has left and also where our
Stabius' prints and woodblocks are to be found? Greet Herr Pirkheimer for me.
I hope to make a map of England, which is a great country and known to
Ptolemy.
He would like to see it. All those who have written about England have seen no more than
a small part of it. You cannot write
me any longer through Hans Pomer.
Please send me the woodcut which represents Stabius as S. Koloman. I have nothing more to say that would
interest you, so God bless you. Given
at London, 24th October.
Your servant,
Niklas Kratzer.
Greet your wife heartily for me."
The manuscript belongs to H. Lempertz of Coln.
Literary Remains of Albrecht Durer", by William Martin Conway, C.U.P.,
London, 1889. Durer made a bookplate
for Willibald Pirkheimer, and an engraving of him, and also of Erasmus.
Durer's Apocalypse is the first considerable work of
art to strike a blow for the Reformation, says Conway. In it, "Babylon the Great" is
Rome. The Pope and all his
ecclesiastical authorities are the victims of the destroying angels. When Durer visited Venice in 1505, he found
Giovanni Bellini an aged man, but still the centre of the mature artistic life
there. Giorgione and Titian were quite
young, and clearly open to Durer's influence. He narrowly missed visiting Andrea Mantegna, Bellini's
brother-in-law, in Mantua, just before the Italian master's death there. It is the artist's letters to his friend
Pirkheimer, from Venice, which give such a detailed picture of life in the
city.
The first mention of Dr Martin Luther (not the American
of the twentieth century: Dr Martin Luther King, the martyr for black civil
rights. You Civil Engineers can be
pretty ignorant at times!), [I'll put
salt in her coffee for that, when I see her.] is thought to be in 1520, when
Durer was 50, eight years before his death.
This letter is to Geog Spalatin, Chaplain to Duke Friedrich, Elector of
Saxony who had sent Luther's "little" book to the artist via
Spalatin:
"So I pray your worthiness (Spalatin) to convey
most emphatically my humble thanks to his Electoral Grace, and in all humility
to beseech his Electoral Grace to take the praiseworthy Dr Martin Luther under
his protection for the sake of Christian truth. For that is of more importance to us than all the power and
riches of this world; because all things pass away with time, Truth alone
endures forever.
"God helping me, if ever I meet Dr Martin
Luther, I intend to draw a careful portrait of him from life and to engrave it
on copper, for a lasting remembrance of a Christian man who helped me out of
great distress. And I beg your
worthiness to send me for my money anything new that Dr Martin may write. ... In my old age ... I am losing my sight
and freedom of hand. …"
On one occasion, as Durer was landing at Arnemuiden,
in Zeeland, a large ship collided with their boat and a strong squall of wind
drove them out to sea. The crew had
already left - leaving only the captain and a few passengers on board. "The skipper tore his hair and cried
aloud, for all his men had landed and the ship was unmanned. Then we were in fear and danger, for the
wind was strong and only six persons in the ship. So I spoke with the skipper that he should take courage and have
hope in God...” With hard work they landed safely.
It is most moving that Christ the Man of Sorrows, as
he frequently figures in Durer's works, brought such joy to these men of
Nurnberg.
(Continuation of Kat’s essay/letter!)
Michelangelo (remember the correct pronunciation, I
taught you) was deeply influenced by Savonarola. This Dominican friar was rather of the stamp of the
Charismatics of the twentieth century.
Vasari and Condivi tell that Michelangelo had a high regard for
Savonarola: he even delighted to recall the exact tones of his voice, and in the
great artist's declining years, he venerated the Holy Scriptures and the
writings of the friar.
Savonarola saw the simoniacal acts and corruption of
the Church in Rome with the most critical gaze. He remained within its communion, unlike Luther, but followed
the path of its critics from within, as Petrarch before him. All three saw the Church of Rome as the
Mystic and evil Babylon, written of in the Book of Revelation. To those who knew them, Popes at this time
were men, who showed no spirituality, but quite the reverse: all means were
used to build private empires, and follow the most carnal of lives. (cf "Inside the Council, The Story of
Vatican II," by Robert Kaiser, Rome Correspondent of "Time"
Magazine, Burns and Oates, London, 1962, for a similar "sympathetic"
critique.)
Savonarola ( b. 1452 ) was intended for the medical
profession by his noble Paduan family .
At the age of twenty he wrote the poem "De Ruina Mundi", which
declaimed the evils of both the World and the Church. He found as much evil inside the monastic life as outside it;
Aristotle was given more importance than the Scriptures he longed to
study. At thirty-one, on the advice of
his superiors, he attempted preaching: with total failure. For a year, he worked to improve his public
speaking, and emerged a brilliant orator.
With prophetic bravery he drew huge crowds in Florence.
He became Prior in 1491. Larger
and larger buildings had to be found for him to preach in - some people had to
climb the outside walls to hear.
Tradesmen would show hospitality to those arriving in Florence to
listen; trade waited for the conclusion of his morning sermon. Even in winter queues of people formed to
hear him preach. Florence saw
remarkable changes in education and life-style, as a result of his addresses. The establishment sentenced him to
excommunication; he was hanged and burned.
George Eliot's "Romola", portrays him.
Schott's study on Michelangelo demonstrates the
importance of the preacher for the artist - by its eleven references. He writes: "It was a period
contrasting with the usual run of events, full of sincere if gloomy enthusiasm,
and fearful of the wrath of God. ...
The so-called 'piagnoni', weeping and howling penitents who predicted the last
judgement and the Second Coming, set the general tone..."
(“Michelangelo", Rolf Schott, Thames and Hudson.) One of the artist's brothers joined
Savonarola's Dominican Order.
Botticelli was brought back to Christianity by the preaching, became a
follower of the great orator, and felt keenly his demise, according to
Vasari. Fra Bartolommeo's portrait, in
the Museo San Marco, Florence, shows the preacher in an austere profile, but
with an inner tranquillity, and a firm and unmitigated doggedness. It was Alexander VI, the Spanish Pope, who suffered
the brunt of his condemnation. In the
Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the figure to the right of Jeremiah is seen as a
reference to this great martyr Prior of Florence.
Another significant influence on Michelangelo's life
came, when he was sixty-four, in the person of Vittoria Colonna, the
Marchioness of Pescara. His portrait
sketch of her in the British Museum is casual, unfinished, and probably dashed
off in fifteen minutes - I did a copy and timed myself – but it does give some
useful information about her. My Art
Teacher would have called it "exploratory". There is a hint of complicated head adornment and clothing. Vittoria was aged forty-eight when they met. Her face will perhaps be stylised, in the
Mannerist sense, but is strong and well proportioned, her eyes are large and
honest - hopefully her left one was not deformed, as this frequently adjusted
drawing suggests. We see a rich and
noble lady, full of both earthly and heavenly, dignity and grace.
[Kat does not always talk like this, and certainly
not first thing in the morning. I made
a cup of strong coffee.]
Chapter Thirteen "Come along, you can take it!"
[With these words, I steeled myself for more; a
civil engineer, with a head for heights, can ride the punches.]
Vittoria Colonna is the subject of several sonnets
by the artist. In them he pays tribute
to the spiritual help she has given to him: that he can now tread the path to
heaven, born anew, a learner in the school of Christ. Justification by faith was one of the main topics of discussion
in her circles of intellectual friends, in both Naples and Rome.
Tintoretto must be judged only by his paintings, as
there is no record of any written material about him. Eric Newton writes: "The miraculous aspect of the Christian
story had particular appeal to him. He
was ... both a mystic and an optimist, and St.Roch, the healer, was of all the saints the most
congenial to him."
Saint Roch, or San Rocco, was a Thirteenth Century
Frenchman and local healer. In 1485
the Venetians stole his corpse from Montpellier, hoping that in their city the
founding of a church in his honour would stay the terrible plagues. In addition to the church, the Venetians
also established a scuola dedicated to the saint. The Venetian scuola is unique: it combined a civic charitable
institution, a club, masonic lodge, semi-religious society, guild, trade union,
insurance company, savings bank, semi-independent democracy, and cut across
keenly felt social structures. The Grande
of the city had six, all of which were most loyal to the Venetian State, and
wealthy through the giving of the rich and aristocratic. They had their part in the pageantry of the
city, and provided the most splendid architecture and art patronage.
Tintoretto's production in Venice was huge: a
combination of many powerful influences, and resulting, at the time, in a
wonder of composition and colour - today the true colours can only be seen,
where they have been shaded from the light – by the frame. In
the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, there was a sufficiently secular atmosphere to
allow the artist, or the Committee, to be free of ecclesiastical tradition in
providing the users of the building - the sick and the poor - with a graphic
representation of the most complex, intellectual, and evangelical statement (in
the sense of being based on the Gospels).
On walls and ceilings, New Testament scenes were placed opposite Old
Testament counterparts, in the most skilful manner.
Of "The Crucifixion", Ruskin wrote,
"... I must leave this picture to work its will on the spectator for it is
beyond all analysis and above all praise." A great commentary on the event, it contains about seventy, to
eighty, figures.
The expert contributing in the Encyclopaedia
Britannica writes of the Scuola building being a glorious centre to help the
poor and infirm, during the threatening epidemics: in Tintoretto's poem, of
iconographic structure, there is the use of religious texts in which he bears
witness to his faith and produces a Bible for the poor to read. We see his stress of the miraculous
liberation from illness, hunger and thirst, of victory over evils - such as
temptation and death - through baptism, the Communion, and the victory of
Christ in the Atonement. El Greco is
his spiritual heir.
"Portraits of old men are unforgettable, with
that inner spiritual force that conquers physical decay."
I must return to the Scuola shortly. Perhaps we could arrange a holiday in
Venice. [It certainly presents
interesting civil engineering problems!]
Baron Clark writes in "Civilisation", a
book based on an early television series: "Rembrandt, although in fact he
was a profound student of the classical tradition, wanted to look at every
episode as if it had never been depicted before, and to try to find an
equivalent for it in his own experience.
His mind was steeped in the Bible - he knew all the stories by heart down to
the minutest detail, and, just as the early translators felt that they had to
learn Hebrew so that no fragment of the truth should escape them, so Rembrandt
made friends with the Jews in Amsterdam and frequented their synagogues in case
he should learn something that would shed more light on the early history of
the Jewish people.
" ... But it is an emotional response based on
a belief in the truth of revealed religion."
Baron Clark illustrates these words with: "The
Prodigal Son", "Christ preaching the forgiveness of sins" (both
etchings, using ideas from two Raphael compositions), "Bathsheba", and
"The Jewish Bride" (paintings in oil).
Some art historians, and many Christians along with
them, find in Rembrandt a champion of the good, even of the Gospel. "The Jewish Bride", for instance,
is taken as a statement of sanctified nuptials. However, a lady of the synagogue, on seeing this work said,
"They're not Jewish!" Gary
Schwartz, in his detailed study of the artist, sees in this work one of the
many links between the artists' studios and the Amsterdam theatre. A popular stage production of the day:
"The royal shepherdess Aspasia, a play with a happy ending," has
Cyrus the Persian King, falling genuinely in love with Aspasia. At first he treats her like one of the
commoner women of his court, but is discreetly held at bay and promises to show
his true love by not fondling her until they are married. Here we have a far more convincing
explanation of the painting.
As a protégé of the Remonstrants, who had broken
away from the Calvinists, Rembrandt was among the politically
unacceptable. He did not meet with any church group, and
perhaps became the enemy of all.
Several of his pupils were more successful than he was during his
lifetime. He was not totally original
- engravings, the reproductions of the time, made the paintings of Rubens and
others, available to the Dutch studios, which made good use of them.
From the vast amount of documentation available to
art historians, a picture of the artist's character emerges which is hardly
Christian. He was not averse to shady
practices in the selling of works of art, but even worse was the dismissal and
evil incarceration of the second woman in his home, Geertge Dircx.
Advice was not readily taken, he was lazy,
quarrelled constantly, and his signature, using only the first name, was typical
of his arrogance. Past pupils were
glad to leave him well alone, he was not asked to witness important documents,
give verdicts as an art expert, or be a godfather. His only moderate marketing success is attributed to his innate
lack of tact, and may have robbed us of an even greater flowering of his
genius. He appears to have stolen from
the savings of his daughter Cornelia, and from his son Titus' widow. Gary Schwartz wrote: "To sum it up
bluntly: Rembrandt had a nasty disposition and an untrustworthy character. To compound the damage, those who were
inclined to overlook his faults out of respect for his great qualities as an
artist were as likely as not to be treated to insults and lawsuits for their
trouble. He himself sabotaged his own
career." One of his students,
Hoogstraten, later wrote of him being cursed with "onnoozel verstand"
- a lack of sophistication, or perhaps a perverse simplicity. He was dismissive of accuracy in his
paintings, in favour of his own grand designs, and suffered the
consequences. In defence one must
point out: it is the broadness of his work that appeals to the art world of
today.
If some find his works to be Christian, either in
their moral mitigation compared with other artists, or in their balance of
subject choice and implied insights, one should remember: it is well accepted,
apropos the seventeenth century, that the choice of subject did not reflect the
personal beliefs of the painter.
"Some of the vast differences between the iconographical and even
stylistic approaches in those paintings are unquestionably due to the character
and interests of those for whom they were made." (Schwartz) We see the demands of a religious ethos, at
a time when Amsterdam stood at the confluence of the Protestant religious
factions, and National and European Politics: when all took sides, and the
artists were ever finding patronage and fortune changing.
Of Hogarth: many have noted that his paintings, and
their engravings, give a more accurate record of daily life in Eighteenth
Century London than the eminent writers of the time. He was apparently an abrasive and slightly eccentric member of
the altruistic group supporting the Foundlings Hospital. His great religious statement is found in
"Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism" - a scene set in a
contemporary church building, with a tall pulpit ascending at the right, above
the pews. The writers, close to the
time of Hogarth, subtitled the chapter devoted to this picture, "A
Medley", and offered the text: "Believe not every spirit, but try the
spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into
the world." (1 John 4:1)
Such a literary style of art is open to misinterpretation, and includes
many allusions significant to the artist's immediate circle. By symbolism, Hogarth is expressing his
invective against: witchcraft, Judaism, Roman Catholicism and the revival
movement of the Wesleys and Whitfield; this suggests that his sympathies were
with the central strand of Anglicanism.
The pipe-smoking Muslim, who looks on with perplexity, is indicative of
the stranger's objective criticism - Hogarth can hardly have been aware of the
even more heretical beliefs, and sinister practices of Islam. It is sad that he did not, apparently,
recognise the work of the Holy Spirit in the great spiritual awakening of the
time.
One should certainly not be misled over Blake. "He ... reacted strongly against the
rigid sexual morality ... and preached free love ... His own answer to (the problems of his day, as he saw them)
... was a kind of mysticism, based on
Swedenborg, neo-platonist and gnostic ideas, that had as its basic teaching the
importance of the spiritual - that there are other spiritual beings, and that
the world is greater than is acknowledged by the rationalistic or scientific
view of reality."
“Which spiritual beings?” you will ask.
"Deeply inbuilt into all his work is the
'hatred of reason and restraint ... Man, he says, can only attain salvation by
the full development of his impulses, and all restraint on them whether by law,
religion or moral code is wrong'."
(Professor H. R. Rookmaaker, who includes a
quotation from an essay by Anthony Blunt.)
Francis Schaeffer suggested - in one of his L' Abri
lectures - that William Blake finally escaped from Swedenborgianism; and that
the Book of Job illustrations should be looked at in this light.
Of the romantic artists, John Martin took biblical
scenes to an ultimate and impressive concept.
Who can fail to be impressed by his colossal perspectives, so
influential in his day? He was a
friend of Constable, who said he preferred the "still small voice" to
this kind of vast revelation, which was currently so popular. Incidentally, Constable said: "Every
step that I take and on whatever object I turn my eyes, that sublime expression
of the Scriptures: 'I am the Resurrection and the life,' seems as if uttered
near me."
Although Turner travelled to the Holy Land, by
contrast, he is remembered as the man who declined Morning Prayers at his
host's church, in order to follow his desire for morning sketching. Stephen Rigaud wrote, in the manuscript
memoirs of his father:
"The next day being Sunday, I accompanied our
mutual friend (Rev Robert Nixon, of the Parsonage, Foots Cray, Kent) to the
parish church close by ... as for Turner ... he worshipped nature with all her
beauties; but forgot God his Creator, and disregarded all the gracious
invitations of the Gospel. On our
return from church we were grieved and hurt to find him shut up in the little
study, absorbed in his favourite pursuit, diligently painting a
water-colour."
William Holman Hunt also, was quite different from
Blake. In several respects: both his
view of life, and of painting, reset their course after his reading of:
"The feelings of Mary in Tintoretto's Annunciation", in "Modern
Painters", Volume 2, by "The Oxford Graduate" (who was really
John Ruskin). Hunt had been nurtured
on Shelley, Lord Byron and Keats, and saw life in the light of sensual materialism. It was a Roman Catholic student, who,
trying to convert him, lent him the copy of Ruskin's publication. In a letter to Ruskin many years later, he
told how it was a voice from God - giving him a sense of shame. It seems to me that the accusations of some
writers - regarding Hunt's pursuit of suitably striking women, both as a young
man, and as an older person desiring marriage - constitute a subject beyond
reach today. Quentin Bell, who a
century later held Ruskin's post as Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford,
feels that as young men the Pre-Raphaelites were quite chased towards each
other, but he is far from convinced of Hunt's purity towards females. Evelyn Waugh, who belonged to the family of
Hunt's in-laws, wrote: "We know very little of their private lives ... his
character will presumably remain enigmatic."
The insights of Ruskin, in the area of typological
symbolism "came as a revelation to Hunt, since it solved the artistic
problems which had been troubling him.
This symbolic mode, first of all strikes the informed spectator as a
natural language that adheres in the visual details themselves - and not as
something laid upon the objects in some artificial manner ... Typology, in other words, allows Hunt to
reconcile his love of detailed realism with his need to make painting depict
the unseen truths of the spirit".
It could "unite realism and iconography, form and content, matter
and spirit".
You will remember my reading of Dr G. P. Landow's
lectures in “The Bulletin”, and the excitement of handling the letters of
Holman Hunt and Ruskin, at the John Rylands University Library in Manchester,
during the Easter Vac. There was the
note written by Ruskin to Hunt in Venice:
"Dear Hunt, Instead of coming to the Hotel - I
will send my boat to bring you to the Scuola di sans Rocco - just knock at the
door ... The boat will be at The Albeign ... "
They had entered the building, and now stood before
the influential painting, reading aloud the words of the old article. Ruskin had not realised his earlier impact
on the artist: indeed he had himself benefited from the painter's
understanding. To his amazement, Hunt
found that Ruskin had lost his faith, and a long discussion followed; ten years
afterwards, he had the satisfaction of learning of its success.
If the viewer examines the "... composition of
the picture, he will find the whole symmetry of it depending on a narrow line
of light, the edge of the carpenter's square, which connects these unused tools
with an object on top of the brickwork, a white stone, four square, the
corner-stone of the old edifice, the base of its supporting column. This, I think, sufficiently explains the
typical (typological) character of the whole.
The ruined house is the Jewish dispensation; that obscurely rising in
the dawning of the sky is the Christian; but the corner stone of the old
building remains, though the builders' tools lie idle beside it, and the stone
which the builders refused is become the Headstone of the Corner." This is the key quotation from the
"Modern Painters", Volume 2: 4.264-5, which they read.
[The helpful library also sent me a fax of the
painting in reproduction, which helped no end.]
Hunt had pointed out to his friend Millais, that all
this made one see Venetian painting: "with your inner sight, and you feel
that the men who did them had been appointed by God, like old prophets, to bear
the sacred message". Hunt and
Ruskin were to feel that they carried the responsibility of the same prophetic
calling, through Art, in their own time.
The tumbled-down house represents Judaism, and the
Messiah, as the carpenter's son, is the new builder. W. Holman Hunt was to make use of the corner-stone symbol
observed in Tintoretto's work, in his own painting: "Finding the Saviour in
the Temple", 1860. These thoughts
are expressed in W. H. H.'s own two volumes: "Pre-Raphaelitism and the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood".
Ruskin was the defender of W. H. H. and Turner, but
was harshly critical of Victorian Art: with its "sentimentality, excessive
domesticity, shallowness, eccentricity and a fatal ... desire of dramatic
excitement". Here was Landseer's,
"The Stray Shot", which we saw in the Bury Gallery; and the art of
Millais, contrasted with the best in the famous collection of Pre-Raphaelite
production, seen in the Manchester City ArtGallery, which you also endured: small version of
"The Scapegoat", "The Hireling Shepherd", "The Shadow
of Death" (we also saw the version in the City of Leeds Art Gallery), and
the sketch for "The Light of the World".
You will remember touring the Lady Lever Collection
at Port Sunlight, Birkenhead; even if only for the delicious restaurant we
found in the evening. The "May
Morning on Magdalen Tower" celebration was reproduced on the inlay card of
a Church Music recording, which we bought for my Mum's birthday. The importance to Hunt of the explanatory
texts on the frames, and mounts, came across in this gallery: see "The
Scapegoat".
When Ruskin wrote about "The Scapegoat" in
the "1856 Academy Notes", he quoted a sermon by the Dean of St
Paul's, the Rev Henry Melvill, a notable evangelical preacher of the time. Ruskin found much to fault in this
painting: poor composition, the inaccurate perspective and colours, in the
reflection of the Moon, the distant cliffs and storm - could Hunt really paint
goats at all? But he recognised the
spiritual qualities of the provocative thoughts, which saw the prefiguring of
Christ's atonement.
These were days when public opinion was still
against the colours in Constable's landscapes, he was only recently
deceased. Wordsworth's observation of
1815 was apt: that “original talent must create the taste by which it is to be
enjoyed”.
To make his work truly authentic, Hunt had spent
several long periods painting in Palestine.
He rejected mediaeval symbolism for something new born in the Nineteenth
Century. There was considerable
antagonism to his portrayal of Christ as a working-class man, on the one hand,
and to his adornment of Him in priestly robes on the other. The miners and machine operators, who were
expected to be several inches shorter, on average, than the middle classes,
appreciated his work - "The Shadow of Death". There were the influences of Durer's
Christ: with patched clothing. On the
other hand, "The Light of the World" drew the criticism of Carlyle:
who misunderstood this portrayal of Christ in His Glory; an approach, which
would have been clearly grasped by the Bishop of Liverpool at that time, Dr J.
C. Ryle.
The life of Van Gogh (pronounced "Koch")
must certainly be one of the most tragic ever to be recorded in art
history. When my father finished
reading David Sweetman's biography of Vincent, he observed: "It is a good
thing that God has forbidden us to judge each other, and has retained the right
for Himself alone."
Vincent's father was a pastor in the Dutch Reformed
Church: dignified in appearance, unimpressive in preaching. He was following in grandfather's more
successful footsteps. Among the
paternal uncles there was a Rear Admiral, and three art dealers - one a
director of the largest international gallery in Europe. There was a history of mental illness on
both sides of the family. In his late
teenage years and early twenties, whilst working in the art dealing business,
Vincent experienced a conversion to zealous Christianity, rather to his
father's distress. There were long
discussions on the text, with those close to him; he attended private classes,
spent many hours in reading the Bible and quoted it in his letters to Theo, his
supportive brother. He visited
different kinds of fellowships, wherever he happened to be working, and he
bought a copy of Charles Haddon Spurgeon's tract, "Little Jewels", to
which he often turned for help. When
bored at work, he would translate the New Testament into the three foreign
languages he knew. On the whole, he
received help and encouragement, throughout his life, from his friends among
the clergy.
He became devoted to the poor and often showed great
kindness, even heroism. His preaching
ability, shown mainly in mission halls, is thought to have been moderate like
his father's, and at times confusing - certainly to his biographers. Like eminent missionaries of the time, he
dressed as his flock and took on their living standards. Although fluent in Dutch, German, French
and English, he was unable to grapple with Latin and Greek, and Mathematics, in
order to gain admission to a university for theological training. Even the grass-roots missionary society, to
the impoverished coal miners of The Borinage in Belgium, decided, after a time
of unpaid work, he was unsuitable. An
event which was perhaps pivotal: so that at this time (1880) he fell completely
to the spirit of bitterness against God and the Church, warned about in the
Holy Book, and opened his life to all kinds of evil.
"I can do very well without God in my life and
my painting," he wrote to Theo from Arles, in 1888. His resorting to prostitutes brought
syphilis, and drinking absinthe, with its dangerous ingredients and additives
(the "drug problem" of his day, later outlawed by the French
government), further reduced his health.
Years of drinking vast amounts of strong black coffee, eating little and
poor food, and working incessantly, compounded his suffering.
Eventually, he found the artistic community in
Paris, a disturbing cockpit: "I will take myself off somewhere down south,
to get away from the sight of so many painters that disgust me as men"
(1886). Among the numerous artists,
whose work and ideas influenced him, were: Jean-François Millet in particular,
Rubens, Rembrandt, Delacroix, Daumier, Dore, Van der Maaten, Meissonier, John
Everett Millais, Breton, Israels, Jacob Maris, Madiol, Monticelli, Gauguin,
Mauve (a cousin by marriage), Camille and Lucien Pissarro, Guillaumin, Seurat,
Signac, Toulouse-Lautrec (who was a particularly evil influence, and seriously
misled him about the southern climate), Japanese print makers, the artists of
the "Graphic" and "Illustrated London News", and, latterly,
Puvis de Chavannes. Other crucial
sources of influence in his life came through reading; he had a great love of
novels, and French poetry. His
favourite authors included: Thomas a Kempis, John Bunyan, Dickens, George
Eliot, Christina Rossetti, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Longfellow, Shakespeare,
Victor Hugo and Zola.
His appearance ever drew the public ridicule of the
unperceptive, and he generally failed to look after himself - for long periods,
and for various reasons. In the south,
he may have found the climate depressing, in particular the mistral. The violent outbursts and mental
breakdowns, which had punctuated his life, increased in severity - latterly he
made several attempts on his life, before the tragedy of July 27th 1890. All his artistic development and
production, took place in his last eleven years.
The final seventy days, in Auvers, saw seventy new
paintings. I sense that towards the
end, his grip on composition became slack.
It is remarkable that out of such horrendous
suffering, a huge, meaningful and beautiful creative response was given to the
world.
Vincent is also famous for his large output of
letters, mainly to his loyal younger brother Theo:
"I think that everything which is really good
and beautiful - of inner moral, spiritual and sublime beauty in men and their
works - comes from God, and all which is bad and wrong in men and their works
is not of God, and God does not approve of it."
"Nobody has understood me. They think I'm a madman because I wanted to
be a true Christian. They turned me
out like a dog, saying that I was causing a scandal, because I tried to relieve
the misery of the wretched. I don't
know what I'm going to do."
(1880, about the time of his rejection by the missionary society.)
"Oh Millet! how he painted humanity and that
Something on High which is familiar yet solemn. And then to think in our time that man wept when he started
painting, that Giotto and Angelico painted on their knees - Delacroix so full
of grief and feeling ... What are we impressionists to be acting like
them already? Soiled in the struggle
for life ... Who will give back to the soul what the breath of revolutions has
taken away - this is the cry of the poet of another generation, who seemed to
have a presentiment of our weaknesses, diseases, wanderings." (1890, the
last half year of his life.)
At a point like this, we do well to remember that
people continually change throughout their lives. Joseph Roulin visited him in the hospital at Arles, after the
ear-severing incident, and found him praying.
In his last year, he painted and wrote about the village church at
Auvers-sur-Oise. There might have been
some form of brain damage, or congenital illness; certainly his
"backslidden" life-style made everything far worse - my father feels
that, today, some form of exorcism, counselling or healing would have been
offered by the Church.
Rouault's "Crucifixion" reaches vertically
from Heaven to Earth, and horizontally from East to West - offering salvation
to all. Dali's, on the other hand, is
viewed irreverently from above, is named after an heretical mystic of the
sixteenth century, and does not touch the earth; not a Christian approach in
any sense. Why are so many fooled by
this picture? questioned Professor Rookmaaker.
Mondrian's art shows the importance of the
philosophical and religious elements, even though, in his case, it was
Theosophy - a Western and individualistic form of Oriental religion, mainly
Hinduism, with an unfulfilled search for God, which motivated him.
He came into contact with Rudolf Steiner and the
theosophists. At a critical point he
met M. H. J. Schoenmaekers, Catholic priest turned theosophist, whose
expounding of a Neo-Platonic system - defined in terms of vertical and
horizontal lines of cosmic forces, and the reality of only the three primary
colours of pigment (yellow, red and blue), started Mondrian on a course to pure
abstraction: the end of the line for Art.
"The symbolic meaning that prevents abstract
art from being no more than aimless pattern-making is inherent in the work
itself," wrote Alan Bowness. Here
again is a way of investing art with a spiritual symbolism; but once more you
will ask: Of which camp?
Kandinsky had started out as a Russian Orthodox
Christian, but came, like Mondrian and Brancusi, to feel that Hinduism and
Buddhism contained the only way to spirituality.
Among the artists who were attempting to detach
their work from formal objects, Malevich is spoken of as a "devout
Christian". Apparently his last
painting was "White Cross on a White Ground", 1918. He had reached the end of the aesthetic
road.
We should never make a superficial assessment that a
person is deeply religious. Eric Gill
was unfortunately close to the Roman Catholic Church.
His art is beautiful - in particular his lettering designs (type-faces),
low reliefs and sculptures. He should
have been castrated at birth, or at least permanently kept from the family
members and acquaintances he so grievously harmed - according to biographical
articles based on his diaries and papers kept at the Los Angeles Campus of the
University of California.
My Art Teacher's Art Teacher had known David Hockney
as a student in Bradford; so we had several stories relayed to us. Apparently he occasionally attended the
Christian Union, and "went forward" as a convert during a Dr Billy
Graham crusade relayed from Kelvin Hall Glasgow, to the St George's Hall, and
church halls in Bradford. Along with
Salvationist and Methodist influences in his home, and later religious contacts
in America - he heard Mahalia Jackson give a Gospel Concert at Madison Square
Garden (see his aquatint: "Madison Square Gardens") - there were several links with religion; but also apparently eventual
rejection. It is perhaps significant,
that he speaks disparagingly of "static perspective" during the
Renaissance, being developed to portray Christ on the Cross. I would have thought the secular subjects,
such as Piero della Francesca's, "Ideal Town" and Raphael's
"School of Athens", rely more on vanishing points and eye-levels,
than the out-of-town locations of "Crucifixions".
Whilst at the Bradford College, he modelled himself
on Stanley Spencer - a painter of both religious and secular subjects, as was
another exemplar, Hogarth. Like
Spencer, Hockney carried a battered umbrella, wore a long maroon scarf, and had
his naturally black hair cut in a fringe; his scarf was once flown from the
college flag mast. He arrived late at
the Christian Union; sitting ostentatiously at the side of the speaker, a
curate from Guiseley - Hockney unpacked his jam sandwiches. The curate wanted to illustrate the great
change conversion makes (Jesus makes), and pointed out that a man will even
change his hair style to please a girlfriend.
Hockney had done just that, a few days before; so his blushes matched
the strawberry jam.
He became known as the Artist of the Homosexual West
Coast of America. The first Art
Teacher had written to Billy Graham about Hockney's state of affairs. The company he kept encouraged a homosexual
mission in life - expressed through what is both implicit and explicit in his
compositions. His sympathy for William
Blake's views, and Walt Whitman's poetry, is also significant. The painting he donated to his old grammar
school is extremely vulgar, to those who can "read" it. My father 'phoned the school to find out
their reaction: the painting is on permanent loan to The Cartwright Memorial
Hall (the Bradford city art gallery)!
Many years ago, my father found reading Peter Webb's
biography of David Hockney a contaminating experience, about which he
felt particularly angry. He said that
no caring parent would allow illustrated books of his works in the home, and
the knowledgeable Art Teacher would exercise similar constraints in school.
It is nevertheless tragic that at least four of
Hockney's friends died of AIDS; seeing them suffering must have made him pause
to consider. In a television interview
(c. 1995) he told how many of his friends had died of AIDS – something, which they
had never expected to happen; they would go mad, now, if they thought about it
seriously. The sad
story is not even one of loyalty in perversion, and shows all too well the
heartbreaks of this lifestyle. Some of
his works are obscene and contain partially hidden lavatory graffiti; innocent
people have suffered his public infatuation.
These people do not keep their ideas to their own groups, but try to
impose them on others. My father had
researched the theology of these kinds of deviants. What a tragedy; that such aesthetic talent has been
misused on a mission of this kind.
You will notice the lack of information on:
Illustrated Gospels such as the Lindisfarne and the Book of Kells, linear
Anglo-Saxon illustrations, Giotto, the sculpture and glass of Chartres
Cathedral, Jan and Hubert van Eyck, Piero della Francesca, Fra Angelico, El
Greco, the sculptor Bernini, Gustave Dore, the fascinating "Historiarum Veteris
Testamenti Icones" of Hans Holbein the Younger, the great expanse of
Biblical Illustration, recent embellishers of religious buildings, such as
Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, John Piper, Sir Jacob Epstein, and
Stanley Spencer, and scores of other artists: through the shortness of my
studies and the current availability of biographical material.
I offer these notes to encourage you in your
pilgrimage. Many in my field, have
counted religion worthy of attention; some, far from puny, have embraced it.
...
... ... Kat.
I knew she was not trying to convert me, but it was
a good imitation - perhaps her own ideas needed clarifying.
Chapter Fourteen Talking Heads?
I remember that it was a great day for bird watching:
I saw my first Dipper fishing the stream by the farm, and almost certainly a
Red Kite over the high moorland. I had
started and finished, a narrow horizontal watercolour of the reeds, shingle,
stretch of water, and distant hills, at a high moorland lake - out of which
flowed the stream of our little valley.
This all meant a rather curious water table, which I must look at in
more detail.
Wales is the origin of three important Geological
names for the ages of rock formation: Cambrian, from the romantic name of
Wales; Ordovician, from the Ordovices, a British tribe before and during the
time of Roman occupation; and Silurian, from the Silures, who lived south of
the "North Welsh" Ordovices.
Details of local rocks are open to question, but the pioneers of Welsh
Geology gave their standardising titles to the World. Silurian rocks dominate to the south east of the line drawn
through Machynlleth.
I was looking forward to a long talk with
Geoff. His office was a pleasant room:
he had a taste for the Bauhaus influence in furniture; the computer had
advisably chosen software and a modem link with the Internet, through the
Caxton 3000 service provider - after a modest membership fee, he paid for what
he used. His awareness of world events
came from an occasional copy of "The Economist", which he read
thoroughly.
He had lent me his degree thesis to read
through. Even in his younger days,
Geoff read "The Economist"; his theme, "The evils of farming
subsidies and protectionism", kicked off with two quotations from it:
"Although the world produces enough food for
everybody, roughly 780 million people in the poor countries, one in five of
their population, do not get enough to eat.
As many as 2 billion people who get enough to fill their bellies
nevertheless lack the vitamins and minerals they need. Almost a quarter of the hungry are children
under five years old. As many as
40,000 children die every day, partly because malnutrition makes them
susceptible to all kinds of disease ... Merely providing enough vitamin A could
prevent up to 500,000 children from going blind. As it is, most of those who go blind for lack of it die within
months."
"If the fear is of short supply because of
weather or disease, then even government stocks are probably unnecessary. Over the past 50 years world output of food
has been remarkably constant, though national harvests have varied. While a crop fails in one corner of the world,
farmers enjoy a bumper year in another, and vice versa.
"Thus natural climatic variations can no longer
be blamed for modern famines. Famines
are man-made. As transport has
improved, it has become possible to deliver food cheaply almost anywhere in the
world within weeks. Hence trade, the
very institution that policies emphasising self-sufficiency corrupt, is the
best guarantee of food supplies…
"Wealthy countries will always be able to buy
enough to feed their people. The same
cannot be said for developing countries.
Poverty prevents people from buying food that is there to be had. If war and banditry raise the cost of
supply still further, then mass starvation will result, however large the rich
countries' mountains of grain and butter.
The best gift from the developed world to the rural poor in developing
countries would be an opportunity to grow richer. This means access to their markets and aid to help develop the
rural infrastructure needed for farm exports to begin."
He discussed, in minute detail, the evils of farm
subsidies and trading barriers created by governments of the rich economies,
the steps which were needed to be taken, the example of countries such as New
Zealand, which had reduced subsidies to zero at a sweep, and the costs - both
inside and outside the subsidising nation.
Only a small few gain from subsidies, and whole nations in the
developing world would be better off.
The average American family was giving so much in subsidies to dairy
farmers in one decade, as would have bought them a cow!
There are still farmers in poor countries who have
yet to reach the stage of ploughing with oxen. Help towards stable, honest and competent government, training
and research in agriculture, improved education, and limiting family size, were
also to play their part. Geoff pointed
out the effect that greater interdependence would have on peace: quoting from
the Book of Acts, " ... they asked for peace, because they depended on
Herod's country for their food supply".
The world would, on the whole, be a better place without protectionism
and farming subsidies: "the most regressive, wasteful and persistent folly
in modern history".
We had no sooner settled down with mugs of hot
drinks, than the first telephone call came: Eve needing Geoff's written
permission to learn canoeing. The
evening was punctuated by half a dozen legitimate calls connected with the
business and the church. We had little
opportunity to discuss life-changing issues.
I came to wonder, if Geoff was the best to explain things, anyway. His own story was helpful - coming from a
scientific background, but I suspected he would be far more help, if I ever
decided to follow his Master. In the
end we gave up, and he went to sit with Janet by the fire and the television; I
guess they would have a Church video to watch. There were several items in Kat's essay to be checked via the
computer.
Since the early days of Prestel, I suppose that menus and
rooting systems have always been a labyrinth.
You could hardly call it 'surfing the Superhighway': I was supposed to
be looking for 'Rembrandt', but was diverted to follow the trail of the
"Religion" icon. At ten
o'clock in the evening one is easily led off on side issues, concentration not
being what it should be. After noting
the mass of sites, the adrenaline arrived with the appearance of a sober
questionnaire with the offer of an email contact - counselling, if you like;
the charge was minimal. I had no
intention of Geoff both risking his life, and having to pay my bills, so I kept
a note of all the services I used. It
was imperative that I used his name and address: to avoid having my own profile
on the Internet - an obvious place for the Enemy to monitor.
I started the questionnaire.
1. Do you
believe there is a God? Yes/ No/
Sometimes...
Yes - which would not have
been my answer last year at this time.
2. Do you
believe IN God? No/Would like
to/Uncertain/ Yes
I had not realised there was a difference between
believing that
He exists, and trusting in Him ... Would like to.
3. What
has put you off, if that is the case?
No evidence/
Religious people/ Evolutionary Theory/ It would mean
giving up too much/Would need more help than is available.
There is a point: what changes, even sacrifices,
would it mean? Was I willing to give
up my relationship with The Kat? Then
it dawned on me, like a glorious view of the sun coming out from behind a storm
cloud: this was not a question of what IT would demand, but that HE was asking
for total allegiance, which was only reasonable.
This was not Religion, but a Person - God come in
Human Form. I felt as fresh, as if
morning had just broken.
4. What
is your opinion of the Bible? Ancient
Mythology/ Good Literature/ I have no idea/ God Speaking/ The most important
book in the world.
What did the Bible think about me? was more to the
point. When we used to taunt the RE
teacher for being a "Bible Basher", his reply was one of mock
surprise: "It's the Bible that 'bashes' me!" He would stand at the front of the class
looking like Moses, or Father Christmas: his hair was white, but had the
slightest tinge of green. I was not
quite certain of my answer to this one.
I have a belief that questionnaires do not have the right to the inner
sanctums of my mind. I left this one
blank also.
5. Do you
go to church? Never/ Occasionally/
Regularly
The latter, since coming to the farm - partly out of
sincere interest, partly curiosity, and partly a sense of courtesy.
6. Do you
read the Bible? Never/ Sometimes/
Often/ Regularly
I indicated both "Sometimes" and
"Often", as a new resolution.
7. What
do you think about the Lord Jesus Christ?
Deceiver/ Deceived/ Trickster/ Good Man/ Prophet/ God in Human Form/
Great Teacher/ A Legend who never existed/ Something else...
I typed in: "Good Man, Prophet, God in Human
Form and Great Teacher."
I could see, that I had passed through a door, never
to return this way again: Kat, Career, Parents and Friends, had all formed a
queue behind Jesus - He must take first place in my life.
A further set of questions followed, as a catch-all:
1. What
is your belief about God?
2. What
do you mean by the word "God", when you use it?
3. What
evidence do you have for your beliefs?
4. How do
you explain the complexity of the Universe, and of living things such as the Human
Body?
5. If you
do not admit there is a God, is chance a good enough explanation of living
things in the world about us?
6. Do you
think death is the end? [Do you
think?]
7. What
positive evidence can you offer for this belief?
8. What
would you say to convert a person to your beliefs?
9. Do you
think your ideas will make the World a better or a worse place to live in?
10. How
do you wish to influence your children, or the next generation?"
It was too late to write essays, so I let the
printer make me a copy.
By the time the computer was free of the printer
there was a reply to my questionnaire, which I also printed.
Chapter Fifteen The Right of Reply
After a buddy-style letter, the analysis of the
questionnaire picked up on the blank spaces in my reply, and suggested that I
should give some thought to the Bible.
There followed several sheets of printout, which started with examples
of famous people, from many walks of life, and times in history, all saying, in
their own individualistic way, how they trusted the Bible to be the Word
of God and supreme in its authority.
A lengthy list of Bible references came next, and
there was the option for them to be sent to our computer terminal in full, or I
could look them up myself using a copy of the Good Book. With time to spare, I would thumb the
pages.
"The voice of God which brought the Universe,
and Life, into being was the same as that which speaks in the pages of the
Bible. This alone makes the Scriptures
remarkably unique in literature; there is nothing else in the World like
it!"
The notes also made the case: that one of the first
significant events in history was the questioning, and doubting, of God's
communication. To question is
reasonable: to cast doubt is temptation.
This was the part played by Evil, and not Good, in the Garden of Eden. Where am I in all this? In Genesis 3v1: "Did God really
say?" were Satan's words; this was more than a question, it was inferring
a doubt of provenance - that God had not spoken accurately and truthfully, or
perhaps not even spoken at all! The
Woman made a mistake by extending what God had said - using the word
“touch", rather than "eat". Then Satan contradicted the Word of God. There was even a promise of some reward for
not believing; a bounty that never materialised!
This showed me that one's view of the Bible was
crucial.
It also dawned on me, that with acceptance of the
truth of The Good Book, there should come - if I had any grain of dignity and
integrity - the decisive commitment to totally obey it. This made me think until lunchtime of the
consequences for me.
Ironically it did not enter my brain until later,
that the Scriptures are not only demands, but salvation and remarkable promises
of help.
Jesus had said: "Have you not read what God
told you?" Matthew 22:31. My
answer had to be: "I have ignored this message from the most important
Person in the Universe." Clearly,
Jesus believed in the absolute reliability of the Bible of His day.
This appeared to be the failing of the Jewish people
throughout their history: they had been told to give the Scriptures a high
place in their lives, but they had not.
There were hundreds of statements, it seemed, saying that God had spoken
to His nation through the prophets.
Only when they took note of the Scriptures, did the Nation prosper.
The Jews were special, in that God had chosen to
give His words to them: creating a language and culture through which He could
speak to the World.
"What advantage then is there in being a Jew?
... A great deal! First of all they
have been entrusted with the very words of God." Romans 3:1,2; 9:4,6
In the New Testament, the apostles recognised that
the Holy Spirit of God was the true writer of the Bible - not David or Isaiah,
or anybody else. Acts 1:16, and 28:25,
for example
Paul and the other apostles knew, that often what
they were writing in letters, and preaching in sermons, was really the word of
God.
"If anybody thinks he is ... spiritual, let him
acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the command of God." 1 Corinthians 14:37 Galatians 1:11,12 Ephesians 1:13; 3:5 Colossians 1:5; 4:2 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 4:2 2 Thessalonians 2:15 2 Timothy 1:13
1 Peter 1:25 b 1 John 1:5; 2:7,
8; 5:13 Jude verses 17,18 Revelation 1:1-3
Peter said of Paul: "His letters contain some
things hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they
do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction." 2 Peter 3:2,16 I thought "ignorant and unstable", were demolishing
words from an apostle.
It is almost too obvious to point out, that the acts
and sayings of Jesus are Scripture: every bit as much as Chronicles and
Isaiah. Acts 20:35 b Hebrews 2:3 1 John 5:6-12
Chapter Sixteen Hard work brings its reward
I wrote out some of the quotations as I worked my
way through the references.
THE OLD TESTAMENT
Exodus 9:20
"Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord,"
took action and escaped the plague of hail.
Here were Gentiles taking notice of the God of the Hebrews.
"Do not add to what I command you and do not
subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give
you." Adding to it had been the
Woman's first fault. Deuteronomy 4:2,
12:32, Revelation 22:18,19
"... Be careful to do what the Lord your God
has commanded you...” Deuteronomy 5:32
"These commands that I give you today are to be
upon your hearts. Impress them upon
your children. Talk about them when
you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when
you get up...” Deuteronomy 6:6,7 I
could certainly say that Geoff's life was filled with the Bible, and it worked
for him and his family.
"He humbled you, ... to teach you that man does
not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the
Lord." Deuteronomy 8:3
"Therefore the Lord's anger burned against this
land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book." Deuteronomy 29:27 As I expected, the Bible is a book with punishments which justly
follow any dismissive treatment of its teaching.
"The secret things belong to the Lord our God,
but the things revealed belong to us, and to our children forever, that we may
follow all the words of this law."
Deuteronomy 29:29
"Now what I am commanding you today is not too
difficult for you or beyond your reach.
No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so
that you may obey it."
Deuteronomy 30:11,14
The command to the priests was, "... every
seven years ... you shall read this law before them." Deuteronomy 31:10,11
"They are not idle words for you - they are
your life." Deuteronomy 32:47
God said to Joshua: "... do not turn from it to
the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law [the Bible
of the day] depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you
may be careful to obey everything it contains." Joshua 1:7,8
At the end of his life, Joshua pointed out:
"You know with all your heart and soul, that not one of all the good
promises of the Lord your God has failed.
Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed." Joshua 23:14
Of a time of decline it was said: "In those
days, the word of the Lord was rare...” 1 Samuel 3:1
"The word of the Lord is flawless." 2 Samuel 22:31
The aged David gave these words to his son:
"Walk in God's ways, and keep His decrees and
commands, His laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses, so that
you may prosper in whatever you do, and wherever you go." 1 Kings 2:3 Indeed, the whole history of the monarchies of Israel and Judah
declares this experience of life: knowledgeable obedience brings true success.
The restoration of the spiritual life of God's
people, in the days of David, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah, and Ezra, came
about through a rediscovery of the Scriptures. 1 Chronicles 16:40; 2 Chronicles 17:9, 29:15,25, 34: 14-31,
Ezra 8, in contexts
1 Chronicles 16:8-18; brought home to me the legal
aspect of the Bible; which concerns the whole of the human race.
1 Chronicles 21:18,19
I liked Job 23:12; perhaps his state of suffering
gave me a sense of kinship and understanding:
"I
have not departed from the commands of His lips;
I have
treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food."
The Psalms are particularly loaded on the subject.
Psalm 1 is about the blessing, and cursing, of a
person's life: the blessing is directly related to the Word of God. Among several Rules of the Game are the
following:
"But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and
in His law he meditates day and night.
He
shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water,
which
produces fruit seasonally,
and
whose leaf never withers.
Whatever he does triumphs."
"And the words of the LORD are flawless...” 12:6
"... by the words of your lips
I have kept myself from the ways of the
violent." 17:4
A long passage from Psalm 19:
"The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul.
The
statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The
precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The
commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
The
fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring for ever.
The
ordinances of the LORD are sure
and
altogether righteous.
They
are more precious than gold,
than
much high quality gold;
they
are sweeter than honey,
than
honey from the comb.
By them
is your servant warned;
in
keeping of them is great reward."
19:7-11
Six times in this quotation the High name of God is
used: the Tetragrammaton; the four consonants of the Hebrew name for God are
pronounced "Yahweh", and represented by LORD, in capitals, in the
English translations.
"For the word of the LORD is right and true;
He is
faithful in all He does.
"By
the word of the LORD were the heavens made,
their
starry host by the breath of His mouth."
33:4, 6
Again, the notes pointed out the connexion between
the Word spoken to bring about Creation, and the Word spoken by the Holy Spirit
- the Scriptures. (Cf 1 Peter 11:3 2
Peter 3:4,5)
As I searched through the Psalms I felt there was a
special preparation for me here: for facing God's enemies, who would soon
become mine. I had seen the initials
of people in the margin of Geoff's Bible; I expect mine would one day carry the
names of enemies in business life, and even church life, like his. I only hope that my current Adversaries
might receive a little cooling off through reading the Psalms themselves, but
something told me that few of those terrorists who claim the name of a
religion, whether Christian, Muslim or Jew, etc. care much about the finer
points, and even less about the major ones.
Of the righteous it is said:
"The law of his God is in his heart;
his
feet do not slip." 37:31
"To
do your will, O my God, is my desire;
your
law is within my heart." 40:8
"Send forth your light and your truth,
let
them guide me." 43:3
"In
God, whose word I praise." 56:4
"The Lord announced the word,
and
great was the company
of
those who proclaimed it." 68:11
"I
will listen to what God the LORD will say." 85:8
"Your statutes stand firm."
93:5
"Blessed ... is the man you teach from
your law...” 94:12
"He
remembers ... the word he commanded...” 105:8, etc
107, 111
119 Out of
one hundred and seventy-six verses, only seven do not mention the Scriptures in
some way: verses 3, 37, 84, 90, 121, 122, and 13. Really, one should read this whole Psalm carefully - it may have
been written by Daniel. It is the
longest chapter in the Bible, and contains the middle verse.
"I
wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and
in his word I put my hope." 130:5
"
... for you have exalted above all things
your
name and your word." 138:2 b
"May all the kings of the earth praise you, O LORD,
when
they hear the words of your mouth."
138:4
145:13 b; 147:15-20
Proverbs 8:8; 28:4; 28:9; 29:18; 30:5-6
Ecclesiastes 12:11-13
Typical of the Prophets is Isaiah 1:10: "Hear
the word of the LORD."
Isaiah 2:3; 5:24 b; 8:16,20; 28:13; 31:1-2; 34:16;
40:6-8
"It
pleased the LORD
for
the sake of his righteousness
to
make his law great and glorious."
Isaiah 42:21
Isaiah 51:7, 16; 55:10,11
"This is the one I esteem:
he who
is humble and
contrite in spirit,
and
trembles at my word." Isaiah
66:2 b,5
"Since they have rejected the word of the LORD,
what
kind of wisdom do they have?"
Jeremiah 8:9 b
Jeremiah 13:15; 15:16; 22:29; 23:28-40; 30:1,2;
31:33,34; 34:1;
51:61-64
Ezekiel 3:2,10; 14:2; 17:19; 20:11,19,23,25,30,39,45; 21:1; 22:1,17 etc. 33:32; 36:5 etc. 44:5
Daniel 10:21-11:2; 12:9,10
Hosea 4:6; 8:12
Amos 8:11,12
Obadiah verse 19 Micah 2:7 b Habakkuk 2:2,3 Zephaniah
3:4 Malachi 4:4
The prophets were the most respected of people,
treasured each other’s words, are portrayed in narrative passages to their
credit, and stood in opposition to false prophecy. The majority of their foretellings have now been
fulfilled. 2 Kings 24:2
Daniel 8:2 Zechariah 7:7 etc
This course seemed as hard as Civil Engineering, but
would God ask for less than I give to my secular study? If I truly become his, then nothing is
secular; in fact, all is done for him.
Chapter Seventeen The New Testament again
Jesus frequently quoted, and certainly respected,
the Jewish Scriptures; for example, Matthew 21:42; Mark 10:6
"Do not imagine that I have come to destroy the
Law and the Prophets; no, I have come to fulfil them." Matthew 5:17
The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders:
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of
mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the
rock ... “ 7:24
The Parable of the Sower, 13:18-23:
Satan, persecution, worry and wealth, conspire
against the intended fruition of the word of God.
"Why do you break the command of God for the
sake of your tradition?" 15:3,6
"You are in error because you do not know the
Scriptures or the power of God ... have you not read what God said to
you?" 22:29,31
"How then would the Scriptures be fulfilled
that say it must happen in this way? ... But this has all taken place that the
writings of the prophets might be fulfilled." 26:54,56
Mark 9:13; 12:10,24
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words
will never pass away." 13:31
14:27,49; 15:28
The early disciples were called "servants of the
word". Luke 1v2
"Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your
hearing." 4:21
"Blessed rather are those who hear the word of
God and obey it." 11:28
"It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear
than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law."
"Abraham replied (in the story), They have
Moses and the Prophets; they must listen to them ... “ 16:17,29, 31; 21:33
Jesus, raised from the dead, walks with two of his
disciples, and later visits the Eleven: "Beginning with Moses and all the
prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning
himself ... Were not our hearts burning within while he talked with us ... and opened the Scriptures to us? ...
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures." 24:27,32,45
Jesus is called "The Word", in the
beginning of John's Gospel. John
1:1-14
"Then they believed the Scripture and the words
that Jesus had spoken." 2:22
"You diligently study the Scriptures because
you think that by them you possess eternal life. They are the Scriptures which testify about me, yet you refuse
to come to me to have life."
5:39,40
"The words I have spoken to you are spirit and
they are life." 6:63 b
" ... the Scripture cannot be
broken." 10:35; 7:38,42; 13:18;
17:12; 19:24,28,36,37; 20:9
"You are already clean because of the word I
have spoken to you." 15:3
Jesus' prayer to the Father: "I have revealed
you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your
word. Now they know that everything
you have given me comes from you. For
I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them ... None has been lost
except the one doomed to destruction (Judas Iscariot) so that Scripture would
be fulfilled ... I have given them your word. … Sanctify them by the truth;
your word is truth." 17:6-8 a,12 b,14 a,17
"Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled
which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago by the mouth of David concerning Judas...”
Acts 1:16 This is typical in
demonstrating how the Scriptures were the overt authority of the apostles in
decision making, praying, understanding God's programme, or preaching to fellow
Jews. 1:20; 2:17-21,25-28,34,35;
4:25,26; 6:15-7:53; 8:32-35; 9:22 (implied); 13:33-35,41,47; 15:16-18,21; 17:2-4; 18:24-28; 28:26,27 Romans 1:2,3 etc. 3:4,10-18; 4:1-24; 9:15,17,25-33; 10:5,11,18-21; 11:2-4,8-10,26,27; 12:20; 14:11; 15:9-12,21; 16:26 1 Corinthians 1:19; 2:9,16; 9:9;
10:1-11; 14:21; 15:54,55 2
Corinthians 3:7-18; 4:6,13; 6,16-18; 8:15; 9:9 Galatians 3:6-25;
4:21-31 Ephesians 4:8 Philippians 2:10,11; 3:13 Colossians 4:12 1
Timothy 4:13; 5:18 2 Timothy 2:19
Really the whole of Hebrews demonstrates the use of Scripture.
Geoff thinks Apollos wrote the letter.
James 2:8-11, 20-26; 4:5,6; 5:10,11,17,8; 1
Peter 1:16,19,24,25 a; 2:6-8,22,5; 3:5-7,20; 4:18; 5:5 b,7; 2
Peter 2:5-10,14-16; 3:6,7; Revelation 2:7 b; 4:6-8; [correlated with other
Apocalyptic prophecies such as Daniel] 1:1,8,19; 12:1,7; 13:1,2; 14:8;
15:5,6; 17:12; 20:8; 21:1,6,24; 22:1-6,16,17,19
I noticed that this area of the study was weak, in
that it lacked the larger sweep of the Old Testament writers quoting, or
referring to each other, and the more general examples of the Old being
described in the New: for instance, by Jesus and the Gospel writers. In my own field this could result in a
bridge coming down, or a road system needing to be resurfaced.
Psalm 78 etc
"Now the Bereans (specifically those connected
with the Synagogue) were of more noble character than the (Jewish)
Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined
the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." 17:11
Paul's prayer for the Ephesian Elders: "Now I
commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give
you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified." 20:32
Of Ananias, the man who helped Paul, it was said -
"He was a devout observer of the Law and highly respected of the Jews
living there." 22:12; 24:14;
26:22,23
"Consequently, faith comes from hearing, and
hearing is through God's word."
Romans 10:17
An important verse showing the importance of the
Jewish Bible for the Christian: "For everything that was written in the
past was written to teach us, so that through endurance, and the encouragement
of the Scriptures, we might have hope."
15:4; also: 16:26; 1 Corinthians
9:10 a; 10:6,11; 1 Peter 1:12; 2 Peter 1:4,19; 3:2 a. The Old Testament constitutes four fifths
of the whole Bible.
Paul wrote:
"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried,
that he was raised the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he
appeared to…” 1 Corinthians 15:3-5
I shook Geoff - because he had no idea, I think, of
what I was up to - by asking him how many times the word "Scriptures"
came in the New Testament. True to
form, he came up with the figure fifty-two: meaning the Old Testament - in one
instance the writing of Paul was included, of course.
Chapter Eighteen A Cross Marks the Spot
Several days of sitting in my cottage (really
Maud's), or in the garden, brought me within sight of the end of my critical
study.
The seriousness of changing the message is brought
out in Galatians 1:8.
The Church is cleansed by the word. Ephesians 5:26
It is the attacking weapon in the Believer's
armour. 6:17
The Church must offer the word of life to the
World. Philippians 2:16
"Let the word of Christ DWELL IN YOU RICHLY as
you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, as you sing psalms, hymns
and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." Colossians 3:16
1 Timothy 4:5 2 Timothy 2:8,9,15
2 Timothy 3:15,16 " ... how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures,
which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ
Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed
and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
so that the godly person may be fully equipped, ready for every good
work."
Hebrews 4:12
"The word of God is living and active. Sharper than a double edged sword, it penetrates even to
dividing soul and spirit, 'joints and marrow'; it judges the thoughts and
attitudes of the heart."
" ... the goodness of the word of God ..."
and the responsibility that knowing about it brings. 6:5,6; 10:26-39
Part of the promised New Covenant is to have God's
word written in the heart. 8:10
Something happened as I was reading through Hebrews:
realising that Jesus was truly God come down from Heaven - I thought of the
space around me not only being the room, or the Earth's atmosphere, or even the
Solar System and the Galaxy, but the whole of the Universe. Jesus, this glorious Creator God, was massively great indeed. I started to cry, when I
saw how much so wonderful a Person loved me, and how evil my egotistical sins
were. From my reading, it was clear
that the death of Christ on the Cross, made "coming to God"
possible. The Resurrection, which I
did believe in, was God's seal of approval on the One Sacrifice for the sins of
the World. I had no option but to
pray, and say how sorry I was for my sins ... and that my life was now fully
His. I think this was my moment of
conversion; I had seen something of the glory of Heaven.
We must look into God's word constantly. James 1:18-25
We are born again through the word of God. 1 Peter 1:23
The Scriptures will help us to grow in the
faith. 2:2,3
At the Transfiguration, Peter had actually heard the
audible voice of God commending Jesus His Son. 2 Peter 1:16-18
"Above all you must understand that no prophecy
of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the
will of humans, but people spoke from God as they were carried along by the
Holy Spirit." 1:20,21
The notes stressed that this was the nature of
Scripture. These verses are part of a longer passage on the subject.
"Behold I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the
prophecy of this book." Revelation
22:7,9,10
This was a solemn warning not to add to, or subtract
from, The Book of Revelation: or, by implication, from any Scripture.
A student in my year bought a second-hand laptop
computer, but there was no manual, for either the machine, or the software; he
had the most terrible time trying to discover how it worked, and was never
quite sure of himself. The Bible is
the Maker's Manual!
A neighbour in Preston took a pilot's course; but as
a beginner she was only qualified in Visual Flight Regulations. On her first solo flight she flew into a
small cloud; unable to use and trust the instruments, she came out of it with
the aircraft flying on its side. Like
a pilot totally committed to trusting the instruments, we must rely on the
Bible, and not our unreliable feelings.
There is always respect for previous biblical
writers: for all that had been written earlier. Apparently, Mohammed does not have this kind of link with the
Bible. Although Muslims claim the
Qur'an has corrected the "contaminated Scriptures of Christians and Jews", in reality, this looks
more like a vain excuse for the major differences between the two holy books -
in both historical details and concepts.
Patently, these differences are the effect of the breakdown in the flow
of information - an inaccurate knowledge of the Bible, which, in turn, has
created this total lack of continuity so typical of Biblical Prophecy.
Chapter Nineteen When Science dated History
Another important issue: Archaeology - it should
prove, or disprove, the historical parts of the Bible, not the doctrinal of
course; although, there can be no running away from some kind of link between
the two. This was one idea for further
study - given at the end of the investigation I had just finished. As a student of a science, I felt under an
obligation to take up such an offer.
In addition to the stream of information that followed, I obtained a
pile of printouts from various libraries - via the Internet, found several
books in the cottage, which had belonged to Maud's husband; and developed the
guidance into the following notes - for my own satisfaction, and as the damp
weather continued. There were
surprises in store.
Biblical Archaeology must always be seen as part of
the wider secular subject, indeed even of Palestinian Archaeology; and yet it
will always have a certain uniqueness.
One cannot avoid the reality of the Bible and its influence - often much
greater than political and cultural factors, and the intense interest in its
subjects among Christians, Jews and, to some extent, Muslims. There are two extremes to be noted and
avoided: bigoted minimalists, or revisionists - who allow no contribution to be
made by the Scriptures, and reject all evidence of discoveries giving support
to biblical statements; and cavalier maximalists - who pay little attention to
scientific integrity. Varied attitudes
are found amongst Jewish archaeologists, who obviously have an enthusiastic
domination in Israel: ranging from the co-operative, to the dismissive. Muslim influence is strong over large
areas, and their record, in preservation and allowing study of sites and
objects of importance, is far from exemplary.
Sir Flinders Petrie pioneered Palestinian
Archaeology with the start of his work at Tel Hesi in 1890. Dr Willard F. Libby has added many
techniques to the “tool kit” since the first use of Carbon 14 Dating in 1946,
at the Institute for Nuclear Studies, the University of Chicago. Richard Batey, at the Sepphoris site,
introduced subsurface Interface Radar; magnetometers and resistivity-measuring
instruments are used to locate underground discontinuities in a similar way; as
is geophysical diffraction tomography (GDT) linked with computer graphics. Aerial Photogrammetry helps in the
production of accurate three-dimensional maps of sites. Infrared photography reveals patterns of
soil and stones in the ground, and can produce enhanced images of faded
artwork. Laser-guided and computerised
transits quickly provide accurate survey models. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) uses a network of satellites to
produce accurate surveys. Shuttle
Imaging Radar, and related techniques, can offer critical geological
information.
Data can be stored, or accessed in the field, with
the help of computers, and computer modem links with large university
databases, and the Internet; and microfiche.
Professor Scott Woodward developed DNA matching of parchment
fragments. Inks can be compared by
microscopic examination and infrared photography. The origin of clay used in pottery, can be identified using
Neutron-Activation Analysis.
"Thin-section and the petrographic analysis of the temper and
content of the clay enable us to pinpoint the geographic distribution of the
wares more effectively," wrote John McRay. There is also Thermoluminescent Dating, Obsidian Hydration
Dating, X-ray Florescent Analysis, the use of the Proton Magnetometer,
Fission-track Dating, Layer Counting in Glass, Magnetic Dating of ceramics
(Archaeomagnetism), Trace-metal Analysis, and the matching of isotope ratios in
metal artefacts with their possible ore sites. Fluorine Analysis, Radiometric Essay and Collagen Content are
three bone and tooth assessments.
Ancient inorganic material can be assessed using Potassium-Argon
Dating. Tree Ring Dating
(Dendrochronology) provides quite accurate information; hopefully someone reliable
still holds my piece of tree!
The oldest of methods include the stratification of
the site - the lower down the level, the further back in time it represents
(all things being equal), and the typology of pottery. Near Eastern sites often have a prefix to
their modern name: "Tell", meaning ruin. A few writers dwell on the uncertainties in identifying a
limited number of sites rather than the vast amount of positive correlation.
Specialist areas dealt with on a site might include:
Physical and Cultural Anthropology, Archaeozoology, Palaeoethnobotany,
Palynology (pollen-grains and spores in ancient soil deposits), Post Excavation
Analysis, Numismatology (interested in coins and precise chronology related to
them), Palaeography and Epigraphy. A
few hundred of the five thousand archaeological locations in the Holy Land have
been studied. There are fifteen
thousand unexplored related sites - Mesopotamia has ten thousand listed sites! New information comes to light by the week,
and one year alone saw 300 locations being excavated in Israel.
ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE OLD TESTAMENT
Attacks on the Scriptures used to suggest that
writing was invented relatively late: ancient Ebla is just one source of
evidence to disprove this, with the use of an early North Western Semitic
dialect, employing the Sumerian cuneiform script. A library containing 18,000 texts is dated c 2,300 BC (c, stands
for the Latin word "circa" - meaning "about the time").
" ... in the forms actually preserved to us in
the extant Old Testament - Hebrew literature shows very close external
stylistic similarities to other Ancient Oriental literatures among which (and
as part of which) it grew up." (Professor K. A. Kitchen)
There is nothing in the Ancient Orient to give
support to the old "documentary theories" associated with Wellhausen.
Genesis 1-11
The Beginnings
Genesis 1 and 2
The Creation Stories are far more plausible than the contemporary
mythologies, such as the Babylonian versions, with their Sumerian originals:
for example the "Enuma elish", in which strange gods battle it out -
creating mankind as their slaves, in whichever city you happen to reside. The Religious Studies teacher at school
used to say, that he would believe the Bible to be true, if he had only read
the opening of Genesis, because it was so remarkably "scientific" for
its time - when compared with the products of these early civilisations. British Museum, 93017
Today's Middle East appears a strangely arid place for
the Garden of Eden, but evidence of a much different climate is found from bore
hole samples, and site paleosol (ancient soil). Aboreal (tree) pollen is obtained from the Lake Hula and
Israel's Mediterranean Coast: showing dense forest cover in the Chalcolithic
Period (c 4500-3500 BC). As early as
7500 BC, the area of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, and Israel, saw:
high levels of humidity and inland water, grasslands, and tree cover. Evidence of a long-lost river: the Pishon -
associated with the Garden of Eden, has come to light from several areas of
research.
The so-called Kuwait River must have brought pebbles
of granite and basalt, now found in Kuwait, from the Hijaz Mountains 650 miles
distant. The Wadi Al-Batin used to
have a much longer course - crossing the Arabian Peninsula, as is indicated by
satellite surveys. The rich Mahd
edh-Dhahab (Cradle of Gold) mine, 125 miles south of Medina, the only one in
the area, produces 5 tons of gold annually; and to the southwest is a major source
of fragrant resins (bdellium). These
factors have strengthened the case for this being the region of the Pishon
River (Genesis 2:11-12).
Genesis 5
There are Sumerian King Lists, c.2000 BC, some providing parallels to
the Bible, written in the same staccato style, and containing ten kings who
lived before the Flood. The colossal
longevity of 72,000 and 10,800 years, pale the Genesis record into
reasonableness, in Geoff's opinion.
Prism Ashmolean Museum, Oxford,
WB444
Genesis 6-9
The Flood would appear to be the ending of the Second Ice Age - about
10,000 BC. The European land bridge
(before the English Channel existed) would enable life forms to move to these
islands shortly after. A team from the
University of Miami found evidence of the Flood in two deep-sea core samples
taken in the Mexican Gulf. [Here is the
field for Christian geologists.]
Several of the reference books in the cottage, were
familiar to me from the libraries at school - both the main stock, and the RE
Department's.
A spectacular publication: "Noah's Ark: I
Touched it", by Fernand Navarra, a French industrialist and explorer,
tells how he studied the considerable amount of data on the subject (including
the long history of remains of the Ark on the Mountains of Ararat), and made
four main expeditions, locating a stagnant glacier where the ark is
occasionally seen. Here, in 1955, he
discovered convincing remains of a construction with stalls - as might be used
for animals, and returned with samples of the structure.
His book contains photographic evidence of his
finds, and scientific results apropos the wood, which suggest an age of 5,000
years.
The plan dimensions of the Ark were roughly those of
half a Soccer field, it had three decks, and perfect proportions, in terms of
marine architecture. There were
arguments that it was quite large enough to contain all the kinds of animals -
especially, if "kinds" was a larger grouping than "species"
- say orders or families. Instinct may
well have brought only immature creatures to the Ark, and kept them
soporiferously, once installed.
American articles were rather taken up with, "Were there dinosaurs
in the Ark?"
Many ancient cultures told "Flood
Stories"; one researcher had collected 88, most of which are quite
improbable, but have main elements in common with the Bible. The monotheistic simplicity of the biblical
account cannot be a truncation of the written polytheistic Mesopotamian epic,
on methodological grounds. The rule in
the Ancient Near East is the accretion to, and embellishment of, the simpler
story, for a variety of reasons - never the turning of elaborate legend into
historical narrative. The Babylonian
and the biblical stories may well trace their history back to a common
source. The Assyrian "Epic of
Gilgamesh" contains the Babylonian version of the Flood, where the main
character is called Uta-napishtim; the Akkadian version calls him Atrahasis,
but uses crude and impractical elements, typical of the many cuneiform accounts. Eleventh Tablet British Museum, K3375
Animal remains, sometimes fossilised, on the tops of
mountains and in caves, representing wide ranging collections of incompatible
animals, give supportive evidence, especially when related to rubble drift and
ossiferous fissures. The indication is
that "animals of all kinds died in great numbers and were buried
apparently almost instantly" (Dr A. L.
Rehwinkel). One scientist
pointed out the correlation between the animal populations of today, and the
larger number of "clean" beasts taken on board the Ark by Noah.
Genesis 11:1-9
The Tower of Babel would appear to be the ziggurat on the ancient site,
and now in ruins. Its name,
Etemenanki, is Sumerian for "the Building of the Foundation-platform of
heaven and earth" whose "top reaches to heaven". The use of distinctive building material in
the area is confirmed by research: burnt clay bricks with bitumen for
mortar.
Genesis 12-50
The Patriarchs
Abraham's type of sporadic seasonal occupation of
the Negev is supported by evidence.
The Negev is the Southern Desert of Palestine. Professor Kitchen writes: "... there is one - and ONLY one
- period that fits the conditions reflected in Genesis 14 - the early second
millennium BC. Only in that period did
the situation in Mesopotamia allow for shifting alliances; and only then did
Elam participate actively in the affairs of the Levant, sending envoys not only
to Mari but as far west as Qatna on the Orontes in Syria."
As mentioned already, the climate of the Middle East
experienced long wet periods, according to the study of pollens and spores in
ancient soil deposits. There must have
been a global wet phase around 7500 BC.
When time permits, I want to study the Geography of
this unique area of the World: the Jordan Valley being the northern extremity
of what starts as the East African Rift Valley. The Dead Sea is the lowest stretch of water on the Earth's
surface. I remember an argument at
school, when the Head of Geography - an atheist - refused to assist the
Religious Department by teaching about Palestine: just as if the terrain did
not existed.
The domestication of the camel, indicated in
Genesis, is upheld by careful research of the great Mesopotamian lexical lists,
c. 2000-1700 BC, and a Sumerian text from Nippur, of a similar date: in
conflict with the superficial assumption of an anachronism.
Near Eastern finds do much to amplify background
knowledge of life in patriarchal times.
The burial of a princess at Ebla illustrates the nose ring and bracelets
given to Rebecca by Abraham's servant; Hittite documents from Bogazkoi reveal
the tax laws behind Abraham's purchase of a burial cave along with the complete
property, at Machpelah. There are
close parallels between the Patriarchal customs of inheritance, and those
discovered in the Nuzi archives in Mesopotamia:
Transactions involving property took place at the city gates,
Customs of
inheritance - regarding the eldest and adoptive sons,
Exchange of
birthright,
Blessings,
and the authority of oral wills,
Shepherds
replacing any sheep they lost,
Possession
of household gods meant the right to the family
inheritance, and
Marriage
contracts forbidding other wives
My reading through the text of Genesis helped me fit
the notes into the scheme of the narrative.
If the history of Joseph were published as an
illustrated book, then drawings and photographs of interesting documents,
statues, carvings, inscriptions, models, artefacts and colourful tomb
paintings, would amply supply the graphics.
"... our knowledge of Egyptian residences in the eastern Nile delta
is chronologically consistent with what we find in the Biblical narratives,
regarding both the patriarchs in the early second millennium BC and the Exodus
in the late second millennium - facts that would hardly be known to someone
writing in the sixth or fifth centuries BC." (Kitchen)
Remarkably, the buying price of Joseph by the
slave-traders - twenty shekels, was average for the seventeenth century BC;
earlier the figure had been as low as ten or fifteen, later, rampant inflation
took it to one hundred and twenty, in Persian times.
It is generally reckoned that the genealogies are
selective.
Slave lists of the time include Hebrew names. Brooklyn Museum, Papyrus Number 35 1446
The habit of carrying food in a basket on the head
is seen in a tomb model c. 2000 BC.
British Museum, 30716
The seven year famine in Joseph's time is reflected
in King Djoser's "Famine Stela": from a much later date - Third
Dynasty, second century BC, and discovered by Charles Edwin Wilbour on the
island of Sehel at the First Cataract.
The king is assigning a stretch of land to the Elephant Island ram-god,
Khnum, as an appeasement. The climatic
patterns support the likelihood of the famine in Joseph's time, and perhaps
suggest a third millennium date for the Patriarchs.
At Thebes there is a painting of scribes making
records of the grain stock. Typically,
the side view of the face contains a front view of the eye - just as plans and
side elevations are confused in landscapes.
British Museum, artist's copy, from Menna Tomb, Number 69
Wall paintings in the tomb-chapel of a provincial
governor called Khnum-hotep III, at Beni-Hasan in middle Upper Egypt, give
clear indications of the red and blue woollen clothes of bearded Semitic
people, like Joseph's brothers, visiting this country.
Semitic envoys are similarly depicted on a fresco
from the tomb of Sebek-hetep (Number 63), at Thebes. They wear white garments edged in red and blue. British Museum, 37991
Asiatics can also be seen as prisoners taken in
battle, in engravings cut in celebration of victories at Thebes, Karnak,
Memphis, Beni-Hasan, El Amarna, and elsewhere.
We are left in no doubt, as to the appearances of
the people of this time - from the Pharaohs downwards.
Professor D. J. Wiseman wrote many years ago:
"The connection between the Hyksos and the Hebrew settlement in Egypt is
now considered almost certain, for numerous details in the Genesis narrative
fit in well with comparative Egyptian textual and archaeological evidence. The titles given to Joseph ('overseer over
the house', ... and 'he who is over the house') may be translations of Egyptian
terms in current use. Other
inscriptions confirm the titles 'chief of butlers' and 'chief of bakers'
... The inscriptions show the
importance of the magician and the interpreter of royal dreams, and record
amnesties for prisoners which were sometimes granted on the king's birthday.
"The rise of a Semite to high position in the
Hyksos period both was possible and is not without parallel then and in later
Egyptian history, when slaves rose to great power in the New Empire (c.
1570-1050 BC), and the advent of Semites at the Egyptian court was no unusual occurrence. In times of famine, some of which are said
to have lasted seven years, frontier officials, according to documents dated c.
1350 and 1230 BC, were instructed to allow Bedouin from South Palestine to
graze their flocks in the Wadi Tumilat (Goshen) area." ("Illustrations
from Biblical Archaeology", a vintage book I found in the cottage, and
purchased at the British Museum.)
For his high appointment, Joseph had to be
clean-shaven and regaled in court robes, a gold collar, and Pharaonic signet
ring - as scenes in tomb-chapels and museum displays demonstrate. An Amarna relief shows Pharaoh Amenophis IV
installing Mery-Re with a gold chain of office: because he "had filled the
storehouses with spelt and barley".
The judgement scene from the Papyrus of Ani, from Thebes, portrays this
'royal scribe and governor of the granaries'.
British Museum, 10470
Joseph imposed a tax of twenty percent, which was
evidently normal for the time. A
wooden model of large granaries has been discovered. British Museum, 21804
The breaking up of large private estates was a known
feature of the Hyksos period.
Exhibits illustrate the embalming of the bodies of
Jacob and Joseph, in Egypt, such as the mummy of a woman named Katebet. British Museum, 6665
Exodus to Judges: Moses and Following
Manchester Museum owns the type of basket, which
might have floated Moses on the River Nile.
Brick making using straw, the use of taskmasters,
and the annoyance of numerous holy days claimed by workers, were common
features of Egyptian working life.
The details and materials of the Tabernacle - the
portable Temple used on the Wilderness Journey - were typical of the design
vocabulary of contemporary Egypt. The
concept of Cherubim was also common in the Ancient Near-East, and many
reproductions are found in bronze cult stands and decorative ivory
plaques. Bible
Lands Museum
A stele (each "e" as in "me") is
a formal inscription on a specially prepared stone. The Stele of Pharaoh Merenptah, from Thebes, contains, on its
penultimate line, the only direct inscriptional reference to Israel in this
period. In his fifth year, c. 1220 BC,
he claims victories over the Libyans and various people in
Syria-Palestine. A parallel
inscription at the temple of Amada in Nubia, calls Pharaoh Merenptah,
"Binder of Gezer" and "Seizer of Libya". This inscription also contributes a
"not later than 1220" date, in the complex question of dating the
Exodus, and naming the Pharaoh, or Pharaohs, of the Oppression and the
Exodus. Cairo Museum, 34025
Mendenhall has published detailed research on the
key subject of Ancient Oriental treaty styles, and the development, which took
place between the late second millennium and the first millennium BC. The distinctively differing formats of
these two periods, authenticates the "covenant form" of the Covenant
struck between God and Israel, at the Mountain of Sinai, and its renewals,
placing it before the end of the second millennium.
The absence of Late Bronze Age II remains at Tell
Dhiban and Hebron, has led some scholars to reject the whole biblical record of
the Exodus and Conquest! Four
inscribed topographical lists, taken together, are primary evidence of a
recognized route from Egypt into Palestine: including Dibon, Hebron and other
cities mentioned in Numbers 13:22 and 33:45-50:
1.
Thutmosis III's list in the temple of Amon, Karnak,
2.
Amenophis III's list in his mortuary temple at Soleb,
3.
Ramesses II's list, west side of the entrance to the
great hall, temple of Amon, Karnak,
4.
Ramesses III's copy of an earlier list - mortuary
temple at Medinet Habu
The reigns of these Pharaohs stretch from c
1504-1151 BC - in the archaeological periods: Late Bronze Age I c. 1550-1400
BC, Late Bronze Age IIA c. 1400-1300, and Late Bronze Age IIB c. 1300-1200 BC.
The strong kingdoms of Moab, Se'ir, and Edom, were
indeed concentrations of population in Transjordan, according to Nelson
Glueck's surveys of the region, and Egyptian sources of the Nineteenth Dynasty.
HAZOR
After the death of Moses, Joshua led the Israelite
nation into Canaan. The cities to fall
in the Conquest, and later Settlement, suffered complex and differing fates;
archaeology upholds the biblical record.
Hazor, for instance, ten miles north of Lake Galilee, is described as
the chief of the kingdoms and the only one destroyed by fire, following its
capture. It was the largest city, by
far: 180 acres, compared with 12 acres for Jerusalem, and 15 acres at Megiddo;
and the site indicates that it suffered destruction by conflagration. In the huge Mari archive it is mentioned as
one of the Fertile Crescent's main commercial centres. The great pharaohs from the sixteenth
century onwards: Thutmose III, Amenophis II, and Seti I, all claim to have conquered
it. It features in the correspondence
of the El-Amarna letters. The Papyrus
Anastasi I, of the thirteenth century, includes Hazor in a geographical quiz
for testing royal scribes. (Biblical
references are Joshua 11:1-15; Judges 4:2,23,24; 1 Kings 9:5; 2 Kings
15:29)
Yigael Yadin - in his day, Professor at the
Department of Archaeology in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem - did much of
the important work on this site, following Professor Garstang of Liverpool
University.
The mention of two kings bearing the same name:
Jabin King of Hazor, and Jabin King of Canaan, is all too common in history; it
is not a doublet, as enemies of authenticity falsely claim - to the detriment
of their case. Joshua's initial
campaigns meant temporary disablement of the Canaanite city-states; true
occupation came later.
Orientalists find chronological problems an
occupational hazard, in common with students of the Old Testament; even so, the
350 years from King Rehoboam of Judah to Jerusalem's fall in 587 or 586 BC,
have been largely resolved. Chronology
for the period after 586 BC is even more certain.
Joshua, 1:4 refers to the territory between Lebanon and the upper Euphrates River as ‘all the Hittite country’. Such terminology is supported by Assyrian records, which relate to Neo-Hittite kingdoms. The blocking of the Jordan River by fallen banks during earthquake activity has been reported near Jericho during half a dozen more recent occurrences - the last in 1927. (Joshua 3:16-17)
The following summary from the CMI Archive is based on the work of Dr B. G. Wood, which was reported in BAR (1990), re-assessing the research of Kathleen Kenyon.
- Jericho was strongly fortified (Joshua 6:1, 5).
- It was small enough (about 9 acres) for the Israelite army to march around seven times in one day (Joshua 6:15).
- The city’s free-standing inner and outer mudbrick walls collapsed outward, fell down the slope and piled up at the base of the tell (mound), falling “beneath themselves” as the Hebrew of Joshua 6:5 indicates. This allowed the invading Israelites to go straight ahead, up and into the city in the manner described in Joshua 6:20.
- After the walls fell, the city was set on fire (Joshua 6:24). A one-meter-thick layer of ash and debris, including jars of burnt wheat, has been found in many sections of the city.
- The jars full of charred grain support the Bible’s claims that the attack took place just after the harvest (Joshua 3:15), that the siege was short (seven days), and that the Israelites did not plunder the city, except for the precious metals that were “put into the treasury of the house of the Lord” (Joshua 6:24) and the individual sin of Achan (Joshua 7:21).
- Some houses in the lower city were built into the lower city wall, which is exactly how Rahab’s house is described (Joshua 2:15). In at least one area, the mudbrick wall had not collapsed, consistent with Rahab’s house being spared even though it was attached to the city wall.
Mizpah was identified by W. F. Bade (USA) as Tell en-Nasbeh, seven miles northwest of Jerusalem. Five extensive seasons (1926-1935) excavated two thirds of the site down to bedrock. Mizpah features in Joshua and Judges, was included in Samuel’s circuit, and saw the crowning of King Saul. The offset-inset wall and inner-outer gate complex are probably the work of King Asa of Judah. Tell en-Nasbeh is valuable in Babylonian Period remains - 586-539 BC; it was here that Gedaliah briefly ruled under Nebuchadnezzar. The development and design of Israelitic houses is well illustrated. An army officer called Jaazaniah supported Gedaliah; an onyx seal with the inscription: (belonging) “to Ya’azaniah servant of the king, was found.
THE REMAINDER OF THE OLD TESTAMENT KINGDOMS AND PROPHETS
Two adjacent 11th century temples at Beth Shan are
thought to be the sanctuaries where King Saul's armour and head were placed
following his defeat by the Philistines on Mount Gilboa. (1 Samuel 31:10; 1 Chronicles 10:6-10) The large pool of Gibeon is obviously the
site of the contest and battle between the forces of Saul's son Ish-Bosheth,
under Abner, and King David's victorious soldiers, led by Joab. (2 Samuel
2:8-17)
King David and King Solomon, in turn, ruled over a
united kingdom of the Twelve Tribes.
With the next king, ten tribes split off from Judah and Benjamin,
retaining the name Israel. The
invasion of the divided kingdoms by Pharaoh Shishak (Sheshonq I) is recorded in
1 Kings 14:25,26, 2 Chronicles 12:2-4, on a fragment of his hieroglyphic
stele found at Megiddo, and in wall inscriptions at the Amun temple in Thebes -
which also names many Palestinian towns (in cartouches - rectangular enclosing
lines, rounded at the corners). Here
an incomplete relief carving, illustrates his treatment of Hebrew captives. For decades, Pharaoh Shishak's dynasty
survived on the wealth and trade captured on this enterprise. His successor, Osorkon 1, in four years,
spent 400 tons of silver and gold on temples, an amount unequalled in extant
inscriptions; most likely this was King Solomon's treasure.
Extensive fortifications of this period at Shechem
(1 Kings 12:25), Gibeah, Bethel and Mizpah, confirm the vicious strife between
the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel.
"The Moabite Stone" represents a Moabite
revolt against a son of the House of "Omri, King of Israel" (lines 4,
5, 7, 10 and 18), where " the men of Dan had dwelt in the land ... from of
old". 2 Kings 3 describes one
such revolt against King Joram. This
inscription, on black basalt, was raised in Dibon by Mesha King of Moab, near
the end of his reign, and to commemorate his success. It has a most dramatic archaeological history, is the longest
monumental inscription found in Palestine, and is of considerable importance in
religious, historical and linguistic terms - being a Semitic script close to the Hebrew of the
Bible; both "Yahweh" the God of Israel (the earliest extant example),
and Chemosh ( Kamosh ) the god of Moab are mentioned. Along with the similar discovery at Tel Dan, on a broken re-used
obelisk, it is thought to contain one of the oldest dynastic mentions of
"the House of David" (line 31).
Moabite Stone Louvre
"The Black Obelisk" contains what may be
the portrait of a biblical king, it would be the only example known, or it may
be his envoy. Originally ensconced in
Nimrud, the black limestone stele shows King Jehu of Israel offering tribute
and kneeling before Shalmaneser III, King of Assyria, in one of its bas-relief
panels. This incident, in 841 BC, is
not mentioned in the Bible, but is in keeping with the course of history. (2 Kings 9v2ff.) British Museum, 118885
The discoveries of personal seals include those of:
Shema (the servant of Jeroboam II), two officials of King Uzziah (Abiyau and
Shebanyau), Jotham (his son and co-regent), a servant of King Hezekiah, and
Abdi (Obadiah, Abadyahu in Hebrew, and meaning "Sevant of Yahweh") a
high minister of Israel's last monarch, King Hoshea (2 Kings 17:1-6, c.
732-722 BC). This last seal reads:
"Belonging to Abdi servant of Hoshea"; it appeared at Sotheby's in
New York and was purchased by an Israeli collector for $80,000. The Egyptian style of the engraving
reflects cogently the alliances, which Hebrew kings unsuccessfully attempted
with their southern neighbour. A
beautifully ornate gold mounting - fit to impress any visiting royalty - which
may have held this seal, has been found.
The seal of "Asayahu, servant of the king"
has several indicators suggesting that it belonged to Asaia, one of the men
required to investigate the scroll of Deuteronomy, by King Josiah, at the
commencement of his reforms. The
design includes, surprisingly, a horse - but the motif was common at the time;
indeed statues of horses dedicated to the worship of the sun, had to be removed
from the Temple of Yahweh. The
corrupting aspects of Canaanite religion are to be expected among the remains,
as the prophets of true religion in Israel and Judah said so much against these
evil influences. (2 Kings 22; 2 Chronicles 34; 2 Kings 23:11)
One of the most remarkable seal impressions, owned
by the same Israeli collector who lives in London, is that of Baruch son of
Neriah - scribe to Jeremiah the prophet.
"Belonging to Berekhyahu, son of Neriyahu, the scribe", reads
the inscription. One of the extant
bullae (seal impressions) carries a fingerprint: presumably Baruch's! (Jeremiah 32:12, 43:1-7,36 and 45)
Tiglath-pileser III also mentions details of Kings
Uzziah and Ahaz in his annals, along with three rulers of the Northern Kingdom:
Menahem, Pekah and Hoshea. (2 Kings
15:5-7,19-20,29-30, 16:5-18; 2 Chronicles 28:16-21) Nimrud c. 740 BC, British Museum 118908
Tel Dan's eighth century Assyrian destruction level is associated with
Tiglath-pileser III.
Work on the site of ancient Tirzah, the former
capital of the Northern Kingdom (Israel), indicates that it was indeed vacated
in favour of Samaria. Remains of the
Omri to Ahab period include: the palace, decorative ivory embellishments -
probably for furniture, and the pool where Ahab's bloodstained chariot was
washed down. Written in Old Hebrew,
sixty-five ostraca belonging to wine-jars tell their vintage, capacity and
owners' names. Pieces of broken
pottery (potsherds, ostraca), and there were plenty about, made excellent
material for writing notes and letters on.
Numerous passages in the Prophets are of ostraca length. (1 Kings 16:23,24; 22:37-40; Amos 3:15;
6:4.)
A fax from Cardiff University told me that, although
Tirzah is relatively unimportant in biblical terms, R. De Vaux had written a
brilliant vignette on the site reflecting his involvement with the Ecole
Biblique et Archaeologique Francaise, Jerusalem, which investigated there (1946-1960).
The early history: the Neolithic and Chalcolithic
Ages, can be traced ... leading on to the Bronze Ages, with clear evidence of
the royal city implied in Joshua 12:24.
" ... the historical records of the Old Testament and
archaeological evidence (Shechem, Dothan ) suggest that the settlement of the
Israelites in that area was achieved peacefully by some kind of understanding
with the Canaanites," commented De
Vaux. Tirzah was within the tribal
settlement of Manasseh, belonged to the clan of Hepher, and was owned by the
family of a man called Zelophehad, who left inheritances to his three
daughters, Tirzah being named after one of them. Two villages: Yasit and Geba, modern Yasid and Jeba, four and
eight miles away, belonged to the other women of the family.
The Israelite strata show formal streets with houses
built to a similar scale and plan: a courtyard entered from the street, with
rooms on two sides. The uniformity
suggests an almost egalitarian society, lasting through a long period of peace,
during the late tenth and early ninth centuries - the time of the Kings David
and Solomon.
However, Israelite religion was not all that pure:
several evidences, including a basin on a raised platform, with a sacred pillar
(massebah), indicate the pagan worship inveighed against by the Hebrew
prophets. The varied uses of the term
"High Place" (bamot ) are a happy hunting ground for research and
debate: demonstrating the crucial part played by the biblical text.
"The usurper Zimri perished in the flames of
the palace (1 Kings 16:17f). The most
probable date is 885 BC; a date which fits the archaeological evidence for the
destruction of Stratum III at Tell el-Far'ah" - the modern name of Tirzah.
The poverty of the Intermediate Stratum equates with
the moving of the capital to Samaria: when virtually all the population would
leave to develop the totally new and barren hill site purchased by King
Omri. The unfinished buildings of a
large city indicate the short life of Tirzah as the temporary capital (1 Kings
16:23 f).
Eighth century rebuilding gives a clear picture of
the rich and the oppressed poor living side by side - again a situation
criticised by the contemporary prophets (Amos 5:11, Hosea 8:14). King Menahem would have known the rich
private dwellings and large public property here, when he left to take the
throne in Samaria (2 Kings 15:14).
The fire promised by the prophets did indeed come,
and the ash layer followed by pottery remains - of the type associated with the
city of Nimrud, of the Assyrian king - Sargon II, successor to Shalmaneser V -
indicate who delivered God's judgement - in the form of total defeat and
exile. The year would be 723 BC: the
same time as the siege of Samaria (2 Kings 17:5). The remains of both cities run closely parallel, and give a
remarkable substantiation of the Scriptures.
The six-sided clay prism discovered in Nineveh -
dated 686 BC, and called the Taylor Prism (there is a second one, known as the
Oriental Institute Prism) - mentions King Hezekiah, his tribute money, and the
Assyrian view of Sennacherib's campaigns against the him. It recounts how the Assyrians captured
forty-six towns and villages, but only covertly admits that Jerusalem was not
broken into. (2 Kings 18:13-16,
19:32 ff) British Museum 91032
The Gihon Spring, the singular source of fresh
water, was the reason for the settlements on the Jerusalem site. The system includes irrigation into the
Kidron Valley, a shaft into the old city, and the Tunnel. Captain (later Sir) Charles Warren, a
military engineer, and Sergeant Birtles, appropriately, discovered the shaft in
1867. This is probably the secret
route into the Jebusite Citadel, used by King David's military commander Joab
and his men.
King Hezekiah ordered the cutting of the Tunnel, in
order to withstand the siege of 701 BC.
Measuring 500 metres, it reversed the slope of the natural karstic
cleft, and brought water from the Spring, to the Pool inside the defences. The water systems must have been developed
from the natural karst process: a region of sinks, caverns and channels created
by water running among rock formations below ground.
Within the Tunnel an inscription was discovered, the
second longest in archaic Hebrew, telling the engineer's story of the
excavation. The blocked off springs of
the time were located by the Parker Mission of 1909-1911. (2 Kings 18:1; 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32:4,30; Isaiah 22:9) The inscription is kept in the Istanbul
Museum.
Shebna, a scribe and "royal steward" over
the house of Hezekiah, was criticised by Isaiah the prophet, in particular for
his egotistical plan for a cliff tomb.
The third largest monumental inscription in pre-exilic archaic Hebrew is
a tomb lintel prepared for such a titled person. It suggests his full name may have been Shebnayahu; perhaps the
prophet chose to drop the final component's reference to God. The chamber occupied a conspicuous place in
a cliff face necropolis reserved for high-ranking officials, in what is called
the Tombs of Silwan, on the eastern slope of the Kidron Valley. (2
Kings 18:18,26,36, 19:2; Isaiah 22:15-19, 36:3) Siloam, Jerusalem.
British Museum 125205
Tirhakah, who was Hezekiah's unsuccessful ally, is
the Raharqa of Egyptian sources. The
common Ancient Oriental practice of prolepsis - using a person's later title,
or a place's subsequent name, is illustrated here. (2 Kings 19:9; Isaiah 37:9)
'En Hatzeva (perhaps the biblical Tamar), twenty
miles southwest of the Dead Sea, besides having a huge fortress, possibly of
King Solomon's time, may contain evidence of King Josiah's reform: a pit
containing destroyed cult objects.
The city of Lachish provides four areas of
information. Investigation of the site
- Tell ed-Duweir, was first financed by Sir Henry Wellcome and Sir Charles
Marston, between 1932 and 1938. J. L.
Starkey was tragically murdered at the excavation. Such famous names as Petrie, Albright, Lankester Harding,
Garstang, and Yadin are linked with the interpretation of the data.
Its origin was troglodytic, linked with a good water
supply. A series of cultic shrines
illustrates well a close parallel to the Hebrew worship and sacrificial
system. The destruction in 701 BC by
Sennacherib is confirmed by "many signs of damage and destruction among
the houses and around the walls" (O. Tufnell). Arrowheads, scale armour, sling-stones, and an Assyrian helmet
crest, came to light near the city gate.
Further evidence of the battle, and subsequent capture, is seen in the
complete layer of ash which covered the city at this level.
Most remarkable of all are the artist's impressions
made as huge bas-reliefs for the Palace walls in Nineveh. These are now in the British Museum, and it
is quite simple to transpose them into modern artistic representations. The suggested detailed design of the walls,
methods of attack and defence, and even the small battering-ram tanks, with
water buckets on poles, to douche the burning torches raining down from the
ramparts, are depicted.
Within the burnt ruins of the guardhouse, close to
the city gate, twenty-one letters were discovered in 1936: communications from
a subordinate, to the commanding officer of the city. Written on pieces of broken pottery, they give an independent
witness to the language and script in use at the time of Jeremiah the prophet -
"in all essentials identical with the Hebrew of the Old Testament"
(ibid). Beacon signals from Azekah
cannot be seen, observed one letter, and an escaping prophet, perhaps Uriah who
fled to Egypt, is written of in another - showing the part played in state
affairs, by the "nabi".
Fourthly, the seal (with traces of papyrus attached)
of a man named "Gedaliah - he who is over the house", would indicate
that it was the property of the governor left in control by the Babylonian
invaders, and later murdered. (2 Kings
18:17, 19:8, 25:22-26; Isaiah 36:2, 37:8; Jeremiah 34:7, 26:20-23,
40:11-41:3.) Bas Reliefs: Nineveh c.
690 BC, Gypsum, 2 metres high, British Museum 124911 etc The ostraca are in the Palestinian
Archaeological Museum, the seal is held by the Rockefeller Museum.
A "Jewish Temple" on Elphantine Island,
north of the First Cataract of the Nile, is described in draft copies of
official letters from the Jewish community to the Temple hierarchy in
Jerusalem, and in the personal archive of a near-by property owner. It is thought that devout Jews had fled the
persecutions of King Manasseh (2 Kings 21:2-7, c 687-642 BC), and, encouraged
by the prophecy in Isaiah 19:19, had established Yahweh worship there. The temple was destroyed in 410 BC by
Egyptian priests of the ram-god Khnum, and their allies; against the wishes of
the Persian policy-makers. In its
rebuilding, by 402 BC, only meal-offerings and incense were to be allowed - a
reflection of thoughts also expressed in Malachi 1:11. The
site has produced many Aramaic documents on papyrus, potsherds, wood and
stone. Some of the material was handed
over to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, on the advice of Howard Carter; Eduard
Sachau published yet other documents in Germany; others had to await the death
of C. E. Wilbour's daughter, and the opening of a trunk in a New York
warehouse. (Various collections)
The Babylonian Chronicle for 605-594 BC, an
inscribed clay tablet, measuring only 8 centimetres in height, gives a
remarkable description of the events of this period:
The
fall of Nineveh, to the Babylonians and Medes in
August, 612 BC
Relations between Necho II of Egypt, and Nabopolassar of
Babylon, culminating in the Battle of Carchemish, 604 BC
The
crown prince, Nebuchadrezzar, claims the capture of
Syro-Palestine, paralleled in 2 Kings 24:7
He
acceded to the throne in September, 605 BC
He
received tribute from all the kings of this area, 604 BC
Revenge for a defeat by the Egyptian army came in 601 BC,
as
promised in Jeremiah 49:28-33
The
Chronicle states: " In the seventh year (of
Nebuchadrezzar II) in the month Kislev, the Babylonian
king
mustered his troops and, having marched to the land
of
Hatti, besieged the city of Judah. On
the second day
of
the month Adar he captured the city and seized the
king. He set up in it, a king
after his own heart and
having received its heavy tribute sent (them) off to
Babylon." This parallels 2
Kings 24:10-17, in which
passage, King Jehoiachin and his court surrendered to the
Babylonians,
who sent them into exile - March 16th, 597
BC.
Zedekiah, was the king left in charge of Jerusalem. British Museum, 21946
Koldewey discovered that the administrative building
at the Ishtar Gate of Babylon contained office records, including the details
of rations issued to the Judean king - Jehoiachin, and his five sons.
The cuneiform text reads: "10 (sila of oil) for
Jaukin (Jehoiachin), king of Judah, 2.5 sila for the sons of the king of Judah
... 4 sila for eight men from Judah."
Jeremiah confirms this: "Day by day the king of Babylon gave
Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived, till the day of his
death." (Jeremiah 52:34.) Berlin Museum, VAT 16378
Jeremiah also warned King Jehoiakim against building
his fine palace: with spacious upper floor, red coloured decorations, and
spectacular windows. This great palace
at Beth-haccherem (modern Ramat Rahel) has been found - confirming the
prophet's detailed description (Jeremiah 22:13-19).
"In the 7th century BC, Jeremiah spoke of (and
against) Egypt, including the 'Temple of the Sun': that its sacred pillars
would be demolished (Jeremiah 43:13) - a reference to Heliopolis, city of the
sun-god par excellence ... and its once numerous obelisks. Now, just one such monolith marks the
devastated dust-bowl of a site; the others (long overturned) found new homes in
Rome, Paris, London ('Cleopatra's Needle'), New York, and elsewhere." Professor K. A. Kitchen, of Liverpool
University
Fellow countrymen took Jeremiah to Egypt; some of
these Hebrews formed a garrison at Aswan, in the southern part of the country -
the mud-brick rubble can still be seen today, on the Elephantine Island. Aramaic documents were found here, from the
Persian Period; they mention Sanballat, governor of Samaria in Nehemiah's
time. Another partner in crime is
Geshem, who is mentioned, with his son, in a dedication on a silver bowl found
in the East Delta. (Jeremiah 43;
Nehemiah 2:10, 4:1-2, 6:1-6)
Babylonian literature shows the surprising use of
the Aramaic language in documents, which also confirm the historical pattern
seen biblically: in particular, Belshazzar as the second ruler, or co-regent
son of Nabonidus.
The identity of Darius the Mede is still a teasing
question: is this really the throne name of Cyrus? "The Cyrus Cylinder" (which looks like a clay model of
a Cumberland sausage) is covered in cuneiform lines of official records:
declaiming the capture of Babylon without a battle (by diverting the river
which ran through the centre of the city), and the desire to remedy the cruelty
of his predecessors, by returning captives to their homelands and rebuilding
their temples for them. This policy
would include the Jews of course.
Traces of this resettlement have been found at Gezer, Lachish, Bethel,
Gibeah and Beth-zur. (Daniel 5; Ezra
1; Jeremiah 50:35-38) Babylon, 23
cms British Museum 90920
I had not expected to discover an archaeological
find in the cottage. It was on one of
the higher shelves of the main bookcase: a flat piece of resin imitating
terracotta, and mounted on a black plastic panel. The caption on the rear read: "The British Museum Replica
of a cylindrical seal impression, Royal Seal of Darius." The actual seal is a small agate cylinder -
like the butt of a cigar, which, when rolled over a clay document gives the
imprimatur of King Darius. It produced
this simple picture on the terracotta: of the King standing in his horse-drawn
chariot firing arrows into the head and paw of a rearing lion, a dead lion lies
between the horse's hoofs; the King's god, Ahuramazda, hovers in the sky. Two palm trees frame the scene, and the
rolling print is completed with a cuneiform inscription in Old Persian, Elamite
and Babylonian. The rolled out
impression is about the size of a train ticket (5.5x4 centimetres). The monarch's interest in keeping lions -
probably for his private hunting - links with the episode of Daniel being
thrown into King Darius's den of lions (Daniel 6:1-28). Thebes, 521-486 BC British Museum 89132
The Book of Jonah is often attacked as one of the
most unlikely stories in the Good Book.
Nineveh is called Mosul today and is in northern Iraq. The Sperm Whale is found in the
Mediterranean Sea, but some consider its mouth too small, to swallow a
human. Evidence exists, however, of
them taking in a donkey, and a cartwheel!
Records from the days of extensive whaling in Antarctica, tell of James
Bartlett, who served on "The Eastern Star", and was swallowed by a
whale, which his colleagues eventually captured after a struggle. He was presumed missing, but was later
found alive in the stomach pouch. He
remembered the frightening experience of sliding down into the steamy fishy
stomach, and feeling all the strength being drained from his body. He spent many days in the sick-bay; and had
nightmares of being chased by whales.
Open oil lamps, with places for seven wicks, are not
uncommon, and illustrate, to some degree, Zechariah's vision (4v2). British Museum
To complete this view of the Old Testament, here are
the words of Dr William Foxwell Albright, described as the greatest living
orientalist of his time: "Thanks to modern research we can now recognise
the Bible's substantial historicity.
The narratives of the Patriarchs, of Moses and the Exodus, of the
Conquest of Canaan, of the Judges, the Monarchy, Exile and Restoration, have
all been confirmed and illustrated to an extent that I should have thought
impossible forty years ago ... To sum up, we can now again treat the Bible as
an authentic document of religious history."
Chapter Twenty A talk with Geoff
I was not to lose track of my present research so
easily.
I had selected a site: in front of the large old doors
of a barn. They had not been in use
for many years, but the sheep had kept the surrounding grass short. With perseverance, I prepared a reasonable
wicket, which included sufficient space: so that the doors, which I padded with
black spongy material, stood in for a wicket keeper standing well back. Some old spring mounted practice stumps had
been found by a second-hand dealer in Machynlleth. Markings on the grass of the wicket showed me the various places
to pitch the ball; measurements on the black padding indicated the amount of
swing, or movement off the wicket. I
was thrilled with this substitute for my end to the cricket season; and the
development of my run-up, delivery, and control.
One evening, following an excellent practice session,
I showered, and went to the Farm House for a meal with Janet and Geoff. Afterwards, we sat in the lounge discussing
my latest study project.
"You would be interested in the notes our old
Crusader Class Leader gave us. I'll
just go along to the study and dig them out." He was back in a few minutes with an old battered red file.
"He saw the main issue about the New Testament,
as being, what he called 'The Historicity of the Gospels: Did Jesus really
live?'
Here catch!
"He used to say that, in decades of arguing
this case, he had never found anyone who could disprove it: not even
himself!"
I read them through. Here is a copy:
A BRIEF LOOK AT THE HISTORICITY OF THE GOSPELS: DID
JESUS REALLY
LIVE?
"Christianity is meaningless, if Jesus was not
a real person in history."
1. Are the
translations of the Christian documents accurate?
The New Testament is a collection of twenty-seven
books and letters written by nine different people.
The oldest fragment of the NT is dated c. AD 125; it
belongs to the John Rylands University Library of Manchester (in Deansgate) and
carries the verses of John's Gospel: 18:31-33 and 18:37-38.
Three comparisons with well-accepted contemporary
books:
1.
"Gallic War" by Julius Caesar = 10 MSS (manuscripts), from
AD 850 onwards
2. Livy's
history of Rome = 20 MSS, AD 350 onwards
3. Tacitus's
"The Annals of Imperial Rome" = 2 MSS, AD 850
The New Testament = 4,000 MSS, AD 350 onwards
Quotations from the NT documents are found in the writings
of the Apostolic Fathers, AD 90-160.
More study and translation work, at a high academic
level, has been devoted to the Bible than to virtually any other book.
Conclusion: As a translation of a genuine piece of
first century literature, the NT is accurate to the highest degree.
2. Were the writers honest in describing the events?
Most, if not all, of the NT writers are mentioned by
their fellow contributors and we are assured of their integrity.
The mention of "miracles" makes it
reasonable to question their reliability.
Considerations
a) Other history writers of the time were known to
have inserted fictional passages, or to have written to stir the emotions, or
to moralise.
b) Historians, such as Tacitus, were not always
eyewitnesses of the events they describe.
c) A "History" may be written too soon
after the events; for example, Heskell's record of the Battle of Gettysburg, in
the American Civil War, was started after only two weeks: whilst "his
emotions were still at white heat".
The Four Gospels, by contrast:
(i)
The small differences of stress, all go to show the genuineness of the Four
Gospels
(ii)
All the Gospels are factual and lacking in emotion
(iii) They are selected from a larger body of writing, produced by a
group which included eyewitnesses, and which related directly to wide public
proclamation
(iv)
The influence of the NT in making people more honest is surely related to its
own truthfulness
(v)
Much of the NT consists of letters: one of the most valuable sources of
historical data
(vi)
The nine writers agree about all the main statements.
Dates of writing:
John's Gospel = 60 years after the events
Mark's Gospel = 35 years after the ministry of Jesus
- and a crystallization of Peter's preaching
Paul's letters to the Thessalonian Christians = 20
years after the Resurrection
Conclusion: The description of Jesus in the NT is
accurate. In addition to human
considerations, the Church believes that the Holy Spirit of God inspired the
writers and reminded them of the incidents.
3. Did the miracles really happen?
It would be strange, if we had been asked to
believe, that God
could NOT work miracles. There is even much conclusive evidence that miracles still happen in the Church today.
The most outstanding miracle is the Resurrection of
Christ Himself. The four narratives
recounting the event have withstood countless attacks by sceptics; sometimes
convincing them against their original intention. The importance of the coming to life again of Jesus is obvious
from the following Bible passages:
1
Corinthians 15:4-6
" ... that he was buried, that he was raised to
life on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he then appeared to
Peter, followed by the Twelve. Later
he appeared to over five hundred Brothers at one time."
Romans 10:9
" ... that if you confess verbally, 'Lord
Jesus', and believe in your very heart that God Himself raised Him from death -
you will be saved."
Two comments about the Resurrection:
Dr Billy Graham, " ... a tremendous amount of
convincing evidence exists today, that would be acceptable in any court of law,
as to the validity of Christ's resurrection."
Dr Arnold, one time Professor of History at Oxford, "I
have been used for many years to study the history of other times, and to
examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know
of no fact in the history of mankind, which is proved by better and fuller
evidence of every sort, to the understanding of the enquiring mind than ...
that Christ died and rose again from the dead."
4. Finally
If we accept Jesus of Nazareth as an historical
reality, we are then faced with the challenge of His teaching: to receive Him
as "Lord of our life, and God of our salvation". This type of commitment to Jesus: as both
Lord and Saviour, is the only valid kind of Christianity; the history of the
Church bears testimony to the blessing, which abounds through it.
J. D., Crusader Class Leader
Chapter Twenty-one More information
ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE NEW TESTAMENT
SOME OF THE SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS
Jewish scholars in the Alexandrian Synagogue
community translated the Jewish Bible, the Old Testament of the Christians,
into Greek, in the period between 250 and 100 BC. Today, it is called "The Septuagint", and abbreviated
as LXX. This was the version used,
alongside the original Hebrew, by the Lord Jesus, and the New Testament
apostles and evangelists. The great
advantage being: the development, and thorough use, of a Jewish-Greek religious
vocabulary, ready for the speakers and writers of the Early Church, with
established equivalent Greek for the original Hebrew. Luke, for instance, used a style totally Septuagintal in
character, when he adapted Mark's Gospel - polishing its language. A Medical training in Alexandria may also
have influenced his style of koine Greek.
Since the discovery of the first of the "Dead
Sea Scrolls", over 200 similar hiding places have been examined and they
have produced 400 texts, of which one hundred are of the Jewish Bible. With the exception of Esther, and some of
the Minor Prophets, the Old Testament books are represented. Fragments are on papyrus and leather. The full scroll of Isaiah is perhaps the
best known. The most popular biblical
books at Qumran reflect the balance of New Testament references to the Jewish
Bible: Isaiah (12 MSS), Deuteronomy (10 MSS), and Psalms (10 MSS).
Shunting parts of Isaiah and Ecclesiastes to late
Hellenistic dates is now considered totally impossible. There are several textual strands: Post
Masoretic, the Hebrew base of the Septuagint, Pre-Samaritan Pentateuch, their
own Qumranic, and non-aligned.
Commentaries from this truly amazing cache cover only the canonical
books, which is most significant. Cave
4 may have been a library - it was artificially constructed, and contained
wooden shelving supported by beams.
The non-biblical documents portray a strict male
Jewish sectarian monastic community of the first centuries BC and AD; which had
many of the contemporary interests and thought forms of the early
Christians. This Essene Sect features
in the writings of: Pliny the Elder, and Josephus. The first-century philosopher Philo, a Jew, wrote of the
Therapeutae, or Egyptian Essenes.
There are parallels between John the Baptist, and
the Qumran Community; a justification of ministry based on:
"A voice of one calling,
In
the desert prepare
the
way of the LORD",
an interest in baptism, the same geographical
location, and the use of locusts as food.
Document MMT, for instance, contains styles of teaching also found in
the New Testament. The Sect had
Messianic Proof Texts, including: a Divine Son, Messianic Atonement, a Suffering Messiah linked with
Melchizedek and the Holy Spirit, two Messiahs - kingly and priestly, and a well
developed eschatology. They taught
the inner circumcision of the heart, had a sense of election and
predestination, and held such ideas as: the Way, works of the Law (as in
document MMT: ergon nomou in Greek, ma'ase ha-torah in Hebrew - miqsat ma'ase
ha-torah gives the initials MMT), the New Covenant, the righteousness of God,
the congregation of God, themselves as God's temple, and not pandering to the
wealthy. In spite of these
similarities with the New Testament, there is no direct mention of any New
Testament figure.
However, many differences of doctrine exist between
the Qumran Community and Christianity.
There is little evidence of Resurrection being discussed. Christ taught that help should be given to
the outsider, and that disciples should not opt out of the world, but take His
message to all: quite the opposite of the Community, which had commenced its
teaching a hundred years before Jesus, in any case. The Essenes were: secretive, in favour of virulent ethnic
cleansing, legalistic - particularly regarding the Sabbath (no going to the
toilet on the Sabbath!), ascetic, and uncaring for lepers. They were against: anointing, Temple
sacrifice, the Temple lunar calendar, assisting animals on the Sabbath, and
helping enemies.
Their concept of Dualism - Forces of Light and
Darkness, spirit and flesh, angels and fallen angels, and the sinful nature as
opposed to the Spirit of God - shows that the New Testament did not have to
wait for the Gnostic heresy to develop, and encourages an early date for the
writings of the NT. The origins of the
documents attract a wide range of theories.
"The Life of Flavius Josephus" (AD 38-c.100),
along with his other prolific works: "Antiquities of the Jews",
"History of the Jewish War", and "Against Apion",
constitute a rich source of background information to many aspects of the New
Testament Period. Documentary evidence
of an Arabic version suggests, that, apart from the testimony to Jesus's
divinity, the historical references to the Saviour are genuine.
References to Jesus are also found in the following
works:
Thallus, "A History of Greece" (Cf Julius
Africanus), AD 52,
Suetonius, "The Lives of the Caesars", 1st
century AD,
Tacitus, "Annals" (15.44), 1st century AD,
Pliny the Younger, "Epistles written to Emperor
Trajan" (Number 96), c AD 100,
Lucian, "Death of Peregrine" (11-13), a
2nd century satirist,
The Jewish Talmud ("Sanhedrin", 43a)
Other non-biblical literary sources frequently
quoted by "New Testament" archaeologists are:
Herodotus, "History", 5th century BC,
Thucydides, "History of the Peloponnesian
War", 5th century BC,
Aristotle, "Poetics", 4th century BC,
Polybius, "Histories", 2nd century BC,
Vitruvius, "On Architecture", 1st century
BC,
Cicero, "Letters to Atticum", and "On
Agrarian Law", 1st century BC,
Strabo, "Geography", died c. AD 25,
Plutarch, "Parallel Lives", and
"Questiones Conviviales", 1st
century
AD,
Pliny the Elder, "Natural History", 1st
century AD,
Tacitus, "Histories" 1st century AD,
Seneca, " Moral Epistles", 1st century AD,
Philo, "Delegation to Gaius", and "On
the contemplative life", 1st century AD,
Appian, " A Roman History", 2nd century
AD,
Philostratus, "Lives of the Sophists", and
"Life of Appolonius", 2nd century AD,
Pausanius, "Description of Greece", 2nd
century AD,
Irenaeus, "Against Heresies", 2nd century
AD,
"Didache", in "The Apostolic
Fathers", 2nd century AD,
Dio Chrysostom, c AD 200,
"The Mishnah", the first part of the
Talmud, AD 220,
Dio Cassius, "History of Rome", 3rd
century AD,
Eusebius, "Life of Constantine",
"Ecclesiastical History", "Chronikon", and
"Onomastikon" (a list of proper names referring to people and places),
4th century AD
SOME GENERAL ASPECTS
Although the main characters in the New Testament
narratives were not people of high census status, they did tangle with Kings,
High Priests, and regional ruling classes.
Such people are well recorded in contemporary literature, inscriptions,
statuary, and coinage. Virtually all the places mentioned in the Gospels, Acts, Letters and Revelation, may be visited
today, and first century ruins and artifacts can be seen in excavations and
museums. There is much more awareness
of how people lived in the first century Mediterranean Basin, than we saw
relative to the Old Testament, and the Ancient Near East. Secular, Jewish, and Christian foundations
have carried out research. There is no
reasonable doubt that the Church broke in on the Greco-Roman world of the First
Century. Intricate points - such as
criticism of authenticity, and understanding of vocabulary - are the main
concerns. Many details of everyday
life are now made available by careful site analysis. (The study listed a few to illustrate the point.)
The denarius, the most frequently mentioned coin in
the New Testament (sixteen times), was also "the most common silver coin
in the Roman Empire", representing a working man's wage for a day.
The various elements of town planning and
architecture can be observed - Ostia, near Rome, providing a remarkable picture
of city dwellings. Synagogues of the
Roman and Byzantine Periods have been investigated in Israel: of the hundred or
more examples, fifty are in the Golan Heights and Galilee areas. No two are alike, a majority were adapted
from a previous use; congregations in remote villages probably hired rooms or
used homes. Entrances, orientation,
benches, main prayer hall, and bimah, all show variety. Research into Christian synagogues (James
2:2) still awaits development. There
may be remains of one such synagogue church, in Nazareth.
Around the Agora of the Greeks (Forum of the Romans)
were arranged the expected Basilica, Bema, Bouleterion, Temples, shops,
markets, bathhouses, and public fountains.
Theatres were built into hillsides, until the development of the arch
and barrel vaulting, permitted freestanding versions, near city centres -
Korinthos (Corinth) had a hillside near the forum. Suitably coloured linen awnings, on masts and beams, covered the
cavea. There is even a suspicion that
the Greek tragedy might have influenced the structure of the Gospels and
Revelation. The Odeion, a small
version of the theatre, would provide facilities for more intimate productions
of literature and music, or civic events.
Not too far away might be a Gymnasium, and the Asklepieion.
[Glossary: Agora or Forum = open space for public
functions; Basilica = covered market, also used for civic meetings; Bema =
judgement platform with associated buildings; Bouleterion = senate chamber;
cavea = theatre seating area; Gymnasium = running track and sports facilities,
linked with schools; Asklepieion = medical establishment.]
City blocks (insula) had crowded apartments, and
more spacious quarters: so that several social classes lived in close
proximity. They were several stories
high, as Eutychus appreciated in Acts 20:8-12; Ephesus boasted two such blocks
at least. There were palaces,
mansions, large houses and poorer quality houses. The latter would have small windows, and the much used,
ubiquitous, flat roofs. If possible,
there would be underground cisterns.
Wall frescos and mosaic floors of expensive dwellings can still be observed.
At the Masada Fortress, to the west of the Dead Sea,
the remains of the Roman earth siege ramp and the camp enclosures still
remain. Herodian painted wall
decorations, and mosaic floor patterns in the toilet facilities, are
preserved. There is even a plait of
woman's hair, from the first century.
Shimeon bar Kosiba (Bar Kokhba) was the leader of a
significant revolt in Israel, against the Romans, which ended when he was
besieged in AD 135. The caves, of his
final headquarters, have provided a vast amount of sociological information of
the period prior to AD 135. The caves
are in wadis (dried-up water courses), inland from En-gedi, and north of
Masada. The articles are mainly from
wealthy Jewish families. Fashionable
garments have selvedge patterns and weavers' signs, and show the designs of
both men and women's clothing of the time.
Dyed wool and spinning materials represent 34 coloured dyes. Limitation to one kind of fibre indicates
the orthodox Jewish practice. The list
continues: sandals of a lame lady, jewellery, coloured rugs, a rigid willow
basket and pliable wicker 'shopping bags', kitchen knives (one obviously the
favourite sharp one of the set), a frying pan with hinged handles, turned
wooden bowls, Roman libation dish and jugs (decorated with human figures, but
defaced), and incense shovels, baby and child's clothing, water skins,
Scripture fragment, phylacteries (the small black boxes with straps, which
Jewish men tie on their foreheads and arms, as I will illustrate later),
mirrors and cosmetic containers, keys, folding pen-knife, coins, a fowler's net
(for trapping birds), finely cut glass plate (identical to a fragment found in
Britain), various bags and purses, and documents!
The first set of documents is cursively written,
dictated, personal letters of Shimeon bar Kosiba, (Did he keep a file of the
letters he sent?) and correspondence to him.
They are of varying scribal abilities, and use Aramaic, Hebrew, or
Greek. Two are requesting the four
kinds of decoration required for keeping the Festival of Succoth (Booths): palm
branches, citrons, myrtles and willow.
The second set is the well-arranged archives of a
lady called Babata. The thirty-five
documents cover, in traditional legal jargon: litigations about land and
property, water rights, covert tax-evasion, a Roman centurion's loan to a Jew,
marriage contracts, and guardianship of an orphan; in the process they
introduce the names and dates of numerous national and local rulers. "Babata, daughter of Simeon, son of
Menahem", is a genealogical reference of some length, indicating a family
of status. The occurrence, in Babata's
papyri, of the names:
Yeshua (which is Joshua, Iesous to the Greeks, Jesus in English),
Yehoseph (Joseph),
Miriam (Mary), and
Yehudah (Judas),
show them to be common for the period.
MORE
SPECIFIC TO THE NEW TESTAMENT: THE EMPERORS AND A KING
A fine Greek marble bust of Augustus Caesar, the
Emperor of the time of Jesus's Birth and Boyhood, gives some idea of his
appearance. British Museum, Sculpture,
1877
Tiberius Caesar is portrayed in Parian marble,
discovered at Capri. British Museum,
Sculpture, 1881
Claudius Caesar, twice mentioned in Acts, is also
represented in marble. British Museum,
Sculpture, 1951-3-30,1
There are numerous depictions of Nero.
Titus was Emperor from 69-79 AD, following his
sacking of Jerusalem. British Museum,
Italian marble, Sculpture, 1841
A special coin was struck to commemorate the Roman
victory: it shows a captive Jewish warrior and a weeping woman under a palm
tree.
Herod the Great is famed for his building projects:
two hundred or more sites in Israel, thirteen across the north east of the
Mediterranean basin, as far as western Achaia - there are commemorative
inscriptions to him in Athens. Among
the most impressive, are the palaces at Jericho, Masada, and Herodium, where,
according to Josephus, he was buried with excessive pomp.
Of major importance was Herod's renovation and
splendid development, of the Second Temple, originally built by Zerubbabel - on
the site of Solomon's First Temple.
The central area, which contained the actual Temple and its precinct, is
devoid of remains today, apart from a few cuts in the bedrock, but the outline
of the colossal raised terrain has been well researched. Today's Temple Platform is not
Herodian. One of these beautifully
dressed ashlar stones - with margins and bosses - 60 feet north of Wilson's
Arch, measures 42x14x11 feet and weighs 600 tons - as compared with the largest
at Stonehenge, which weighs 40 tons; this gives some idea of the scale of the
Herodian building and in particular the huge retaining wall. At the Western (or Wailing) Wall, today:
the Male Area contains two arches, which lead into a whole system of rooms and
corridors, including the excavated tunnel - twenty feet above the Herodian
street at the foot of the Herodian wall, and Wilson's Arch - which crossed the
Tyropoeon Valley; the Women's Area has the remains of Barclay's Gate. All four gates on the western side have
been located, two entered by, or near, bridges over the main street which runs
along this side of the Temple (the larger - Wilson's Aqueduct Arch - crossed
the Tyropoeon Valley as well).
On the south wall, the pavement and steps leading to
the Double Gate are visible. In the
first century, the massive Royal Porch topped the length of this southern
wall. At the eastern end of the Porch
was probably the "pinnacle" of Jesus's temptation.
Some of the gold painted decoration has been
found. About the time of Jesus, the
Sanhedrin moved its Headquarters into the Porch.
Solomon's Colonnade was on the eastern side. It was here that scribes held their schools
and debates, and money changers and stallholders sold animals for
sacrifice. The early Church met here.
The blocked in Golden Gate - in the Eastern Wall, is of Byzantine or Muslim design; below it
is hidden a far more mysterious gate, which could date from Solomon's
time. A line drawn from these gates
across the Temple site, passes a hundred metres north of the Dome of the Rock:
in fact through the small Dome of the Tablets. Here the traces of foundation cuts in the bedrock were found;
the measurements suggest the cubits of Solomon and Zerubbabel's times (42.8 and
43.7 centimetres). These probably
locate the site of the Second Temple, which would have stood here within its
courtyards. On the other hand, Leen
Ritmeyer makes a good case around the es-Sakhra - the bedrock found within the
Dome of the Rock. A flight of steps in
the north west corner of the Temple Area suggest an orientation for Solomon's
Temple of 3.5 degrees east of north.
Cuts in the es-Sakhra rock agree with this axis, and led him to identify
the foundation outline of the Holy of Holies.
Even more significant is a shallow rectangle, in the centre of this
plan, which could have been the location of the Ark of the Covenant.
From the inner court: warning notices to Gentiles
have been found. The main eastern
entrance to this court had bronze gates from Korinthos.
The only extant building of Herod the Great is that
which protects the Patriarchal burial site in Hebron. Philo noted that his fine Palace in Jerusalem became the
residence of Pilate: its raised pavement and podium would be the Bema on which
the Procurator sentenced Jesus.
MAIN
ITEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER: THE GOSPELS
The significance of the "Star of
Bethlehem" has been clearly explained in various papers and lectures by C.
J. Humphreys, Professor of Material Sciences at Cambridge University. My notes are mainly based on his
thinking. The Magi, who came paying
homage to Jesus at his birth, are known as a priestly group of astronomer-astrologers
living in Persia (Iran), other Near Eastern countries, and particularly in the
city of Babylon. The Messianic beliefs
of the Jewish community there may well have influenced them. Ancient literature tells of similar visits
paid by them to the ruling class, including one to Nero in Rome (AD 66).
These men would be impressed by their observations
in the final decade BC, as there were three notable celestial events:
1. the triple conjunction of the planets Saturn and
Jupiter, against Pisces, in 7 BC,
2. the massing of three planets, Saturn, Jupiter and
Mars in 6 BC - also against the constellation of Pisces, and
3. a well observed comet against Capricornus in 5
BC.
To astrologers the significance would be
spectacular:
Pisces = Israel,
Saturn = the divine Father,
Jupiter = the divine son,
Mars = the celestial warrior, and
Capricornus = the home of the divine Father.
The comet would set them on their way; Chinese
astronomical records coincide perfectly with the text of Matthew's Gospel
(2:1-12). There would be a
seventy-day period of the comet's visibility, during its way out from
perihelion - the point in orbit closest to the sun. A comet in the East would indicate a rapidly approaching
event. Matthew's words about its
coming to "stand over" Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem, is a technical
term of contemporary astronomers for the tail and general appearance of a
comet. The two years latched on to by
King Herod the Great would be the date of the first conjunction.
The revised date of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth
would be the spring of 5 BC. Within
our system of chronology, Herod died a year later in 4 BC. Shepherds and sheep living out, also
suggests a warm time of the year (Luke 2:8).
The Magi are not stated to be kings, and the number three, merely refers
to their gifts, not the number in the party.
Joseph no longer resided in a cattle shed, but in a house (Matthew
2:11). There is no statement to the
effect that Mary rode on a donkey.
Tertullian recorded a census of Sentius Saturninus,
Governor of Syria, taking some time to complete (9-6 BC). The Roman censuses followed a fourteen-year
cycle. The wording in Luke is
evocative of two extant census documents of the time.
British Museum papyrus 904, and Oxyrhynchus papyrus
255
Micrographic letters on a coin, place a Quirinius as
proconsul of Syria and Cilicia, from 11 BC until after the death of Herod. Some eminent names have suggested a
possible variant translation: "This census took place 'before' the one
when Quirinius was governor of Syria."
Lysanias Tetrarch in Abila, near Damascus, is
recorded in an inscription found during excavations there.
Jesus is called "the son of the carpenter"
(Matthew 13:55). The Greek word for
carpenter - "tektone", includes craftsman, artisan, producer or
workman. Some suggest that Jesus and
Joseph may have worked together in the building boom at Sepphoris in Galilee,
only three miles from Nazareth.
Capernaum is identified as Tell Hum. Under the later limestone synagogue walls
are the black basalt remains of the building of Jesus's time. According to Luke, a Roman centurion had
built it for the Jews (7:1-5). A
basalt cobblestone floor covered the entire area of large nave and two narrow
aisles, which were on the east and west sides. The total dimensions were 20x26 yards, and the walls were 4 feet
thick. Pottery from under the floor
establishes the date.
Famous for the swine plunging into the lake fame,
Gergesa has precipitated textual, but not archaeological difficulties: the site
of Tell el-Kursi - nine miles southeast across the lake from Capernaum - has
excellent accreditation in terms of historical remains and topography.
A first century workboat was found in the mud of the
lake, in 1986. It measures, in metres
9 x 2.5 x 1.5 high, could have carried up to fifteen average-sized men of the
day, and was designed with a mast and four oars. At Magdala, there is a first century mosaic picture of a similar
boat.
Samaria is recognised as the modern Nablus, where,
in the eastern quarter, there is the firmly attested Jacob's Well. 'Askar, identified as Sychar, is half a
mile from the well and easily visible on the southern slopes of Mount Ebal -
conveying clearly the scene set in John 4.
In Jerusalem, two large pools (5,000 square yards of
water surface) have been excavated 100 yards west of St Stephen's Gate, near to
the ancient Sheep Gate. Here also are
the remains of the colonnade mentioned in John's Gospel: the bases, capitals,
and drums of columns. The Hebrew name,
found in the Copper Scroll from Qumran (AD 28-68), is Beth Eshdathayin, which
could mean, House of the Twin Pools.
An Herodian road may have crossed the dyke which separated the pools.
(Perhaps a civil engineer would be useful on a dig.)
The Pool of Siloam (representing the Hebrew,
Shiloah) is still fed by the Gihon Spring via the 1749-foot tunnel constructed
in the reign of King Hezekiah (Cf earlier notes). Jesus healed a blind man at this Pool (John 9).
Tradition attests to the Tomb of Lazarus, as does
the "Onomastikon" written by Eusebius in AD 330, and translated with
comments by Jerome in AD 390. The
entrance on the north has been made to replace the original east facing one,
closed by the building of a mosque. As
with many New Testament sites, excavation reveals church remains, beginning
with the Byzantine period.
Again, early Christian tradition indicates the Holy
Zion Church as the site of the home of John Mark, which saw the Last Supper,
resurrection appearances, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the
locality of Peter's first sermon, early prayer meetings, and Peter's return
from prison in Acts 12 - there is no textual proof that one house is featured
in all events. A Jewish Christian
synagogue-church, from the period after the Jewish Revolt, and built by
Believers returning from Petra, may be the basis for later buildings. Herodian stones from the Temple area appear
to have been used, and there is a niche is orientated towards the Holy
Sepulchre rather than the Temple.
A bronze coin of Pontius Pilate, who was Procurator
at the time of the Crucifixion, has an emblem of three ears of corn - one
upright, and two drooping. He is known
from non-biblical literature as the Prefect from AD 26-36. An inscription originating from the
Tiberium in Caesarea Maritima mentions his name
Games carved in a pavement of the Roman Period,
inside the Antonia Fortress, may explain why Jesus was dressed as a king by the
soldiers: so that he could be a life-sized piece to be moved round a "Game
of the King".
Joan E. Taylor has made a good case for the cave at Gethsemane
being the site of the olive press, as well as the place used by Jesus and His
apostles for shelter, on that eventful night.
Although the Romans crucified many thousands of
lower census classes, only one example appears to have been found. The skeleton is of a Jewish male of the
mid-first century, who was about twenty-five years of age, had a cleft right
palate, and was average height for the time and place (5 feet 6 inches). The arms may have been tied, as well as
having the lower forearm nailed; the feet, appear to have received a single
nail through both heels, but the knees could have been apart, or bent to one
side. The cause of death varied with
each case and was multifactorial; but usually hypovolemic shock - from low
blood volume - and exhaustion asphyxia were the most prominent.
Jewish archaeologists have investigated tombs in
Jerusalem, belonging to the period from 100 BC to the fall of Jerusalem in 70
AD. Several are of the type implied in
the Resurrection narratives of the Gospels: having a large cartwheel stone as a
door. Many common names on ossuaries
(containers for bones) are those found in the Gospels and Acts; two, which are
not common, could therefore be the actual Apphia and Barsabas of the Christian
documents. One epitaph mentions a
"didaskalos" - a rabbi, or teacher: proving that the term used of
Jesus is not anachronistic.
Although the Garden Tomb (Gordon's Tomb) is
evocative of the narrative, its typology belongs to Iron Age II (8th or 7th
century BC). There are over 700 tombs
of Jesus's time within three miles of the city boundary. Surprisingly, the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre site has good credentials.
Although inside the modern city wall, it was earlier outside - until
shortly after the Lord's time. From the third to the first century BC the
place was a quarry; it was then in filled for use as a garden, and four early
Roman Period tombs were made there.
Literary evidence from Eusebius, the Emperor Constantine - writing to
the Bishop of Jerusalem, and Jerome, is supportive of this second location.
The Akeldama of the Bible does not fit the site of
that name today, which is half a mile south of Old Jerusalem, near the
confluence of the Hinnon and Kidron Valleys.
"Akeldama" contains a unique collection of 80 fine and
well-preserved tombs mainly belonging to higher census classes of the Herodian
period (37 BC-AD 70), and possibly including that of the High Priest Annas, who
held office during the years AD 6-15 - this would agree with Josephus's description
of the Roman siege of the city in AD 70.
An ossuary bears the name Ariston of Apamea, who is also mentioned in
the Mishnah. A more likely location is
further out of the city: near the southern approach road and a significantly
large clay deposit.
A white marble stone carries an ordinance requiring
the death penalty for anyone breaking the seal of a tomb, or stealing the
cadaver. If dated before the
Crucifixion, there are implications regarding the suggestion that the disciples
had stolen the body, if dated after, say during the reign of Claudius, it could
spring from the Jewish-Christian confrontations in Rome. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
MAIN
ITEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER - POST RESURRECTION
The dating of events in Acts, and their correlation
with the Letters, is not an easy task.
When Paul came to Corinth for the first time, as part of his second
missionary journey, he lodged and worked with two business people: Priscilla
and Aquila. The Emperor Claudius had
recently expelled them from Rome, along with other Jewish families. Suetonius and others mention the occasion,
which can be fixed in AD 49.
In Acts 18 we are informed that during the apostle's
eighteen-month stay in the city he was brought before the Proconsul. An inscription, probably once incorporated
in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, mentions Lucius Junius Gallio, Proconsul of
Achaia, and friend of Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus; it is dated
AD 52, giving his accession as early summer AD 51, and Paul's arrival perhaps
as the winter of 50.
Micrographics on a coin, suggest an accession date
for Festus, Procurator of Judea, in about April AD 56; this would give Paul's
two years as a prisoner in Rome as starting from February AD 57. It is placed three years or more later, in
some chronologies.
The pattern of city blocks forming the Hellenistic
grid of streets at Damascus can still be seen. The Street Called Straight, where Ananias visited Paul, would be
the 50-foot wide, colonnaded cardo maximus (main street); it still bisects the
city on an east west axis ( Acts 9 ).
Tarsus, the birthplace of Paul, was an eminent city
of learning at the time, with a variety of schools of Rhetoric, pride in its
notable philosophers, and world fame as a centre of Stoic teaching. In 41 BC, Cleopatra had sailed to the city
in her gilded barge to meet Mark Anthony.
Paul's tutor, Gamaliel, is mentioned in the "Sanhedrin"
section of the Talmud.
Caesarea Maritima, the scene of numerous events in
Acts, has been well investigated.
Luke's use of the term "God-fearers"
received indirect support in 1976, with the discovery of an inscription at
Aphrodisias, in southwestern Turkey.
The site of Derbe is in some dispute: two
inscriptions, one on a particularly large stone, have been found, without
solving the problem.
A road built by Gnaios Egnatios, the Roman Proconsul
of Macedonia, and called the Via Egnatia - it was completed prior to 120
BC. It covered 535 Roman miles (493
English miles): stretching from Apollonia on the west coast of Macedonia, to a
point on the east coast, north of Samothrace: with Thessalonica as the
mid-point; the apostles would know it well and make full use of it. This road would take Paul and Silas at
least part of the distance from Neapolis to Philippi, where it formed the main
street: with the Neapolis Gate at the eastern end and the Krenides Gate at the
western. The Tribunal (Bema) on the
north side of the Forum would be familiar to Paul, following his appearance
before the city magistrates (Acts 16).
Three locations for the conversion of Lydia come under consideration,
with the balance being in favour of the site just outside the eastern gate.
Significantly, Paul passed through Amphipolis and
Apollonia, just as earlier he had only lodged overnight in Samothrace; even
though important cities, they appear to have had little in the way of synagogue
congregations, in contrast with Thessalonica (Acts 17v1).
Thessolonica was the capital of the second district
of Macedonia. It had been founded by one
of the four generals of Alexander the Great, who named it after his wife - a
half sister to Alexander. Both Jews
and Christians here would find a special significance in Daniel's vision of the
leopard with four heads, which represented these four generals. The gospel attracted women of the upper
census classes; and only three weeks of preaching, shortly after the Day of
Atonement AD 49, produced a most influential and encouraging congregation,
which was to send its evangelists throughout Macedonia and Achaia. Inscriptive evidence has justified Luke's
use of the term "politarchs" for the city officials: well over thirty
examples, dating back to King Perseus, 179 BC. British Museum, Inscription 171, etc
Paul had travelled westwards along the Via Egnatia
before turning off for Beroea, with its synagogue. A gymnasiarch rules inscription gives useful word definitions:
Males,
15 years and under - are paides,
15-17 - are called epheboi,
17-22 - are termed neaniskoi.
Since classical times, Athens has been served by the
harbour of Piraeus. The Athens of New
Testament times is well portrayed by its ancient sites and literary
evidence. Over 7,500 inscriptions have
come to light from the Agora alone, and stratigraphical excavations have been
possible for many buildings. Altar
inscriptions in the genitive and dative cases imply the worship of the Emperor
Augustus. Altars to unknown gods were
common at the time, as Pausanias, and others, also noted.
Chapter Twenty-two MAUD THE ARCHAEOLOGIST!
From his bookcase, it was obvious that Maud's
husband had an amateur interest in Biblical Archaeology. In fact, on his retirement, they had spent
a year preparing for a visit to Greece, and in particular, Korinthos. I was allowed to listen to an old-style
cassette recording made by Maud. With
some editing and rewriting, here is the transcript of the talk.
The second missionary journey of Paul brought him to
Thessalonica, where the power of the Gospel was seen in the formation of the
Church in approximately three weeks.
Just look at the two letters he wrote to them, and notice the maturity
he expected only months after its inception!
After rioting: started by the Jews, Paul left the city by night. He travelled southwards, two hundred and
fifty miles, to Athens.
We visited the eastern Roman Forum where he
preached: in the shadow of the famous Acropolis, and near to the decorative
Tower of the Winds - the Horologion or time piece for the Market.
One warm evening, we walked to Mars Hill - the
Areopagus - simply a wooded rocky outcrop, across a small valley from the
Acropolis and the Parthenon. The
Areopagus Council, before which Paul was called to appear, was the Athenian
"House of Lords", a senate of senior politicians, which even had
power over the judiciary. How
appropriately, he warned that God has set a day when He will judge the whole
World with justice, by the man He has appointed, and whose authority is
demonstrated by the Resurrection. The
meeting would obviously take place in the official Bouleterion, somewhere in
this part of Athens. No visitor should
miss the view of the city from the Lycabettus Hill.
As we hoped to spend most of our holiday in
Korinthos, on the Friday morning we booked places on a bus, for the fifty-mile
journey westwards. The fumes and the
heat were overwhelming as we travelled out of Athens, passing by the Port of
Piraeus. The road used by Paul could
be seen lower down the seaward slope - apart from its detour inland to
Megara. The Saronic Gulf was on our
left, until we crossed the one hundred year old canal, cut through the rock of
the Isthmus. Greece is rather like the
palm of a left hand glove which has been squeezed at the knuckles - the land
narrows to a mere three miles, before broadening out into the huge land mass of
The Peloponnes - southern Greece.
The bus stopped near a garden square in the kitsch
modern city of Korinthos. From here we
took a taxi. We still travelled
westwards: with the Gulf of Korinthos on our right, until we reached our
lodging: an excellent chalet in a compound run by an Austrian lady, who had married Mr Dimogerontas - a
Greek smallholder, whilst living in Australia. We were between Modern and Ancient Korinthos. An afternoon walk took us across the
railway track and the road, to follow the rural coast near to the remains of
Lechaeum - once the major of the two ports and opening into the western facing
Gulf, and within the outer bounds of the ancient city wall. Today, there are just a few remaining
stones of the old quays, and the curious duck-shaped outline of the lagoon,
which formed this pivotal trading centre.
Two miles inland: against the backdrop of the Akrokorinthos mountain, we
could see the seven ochre coloured columns of the Archaic Temple marking the
site of the ancient city.
The following day, a short ride, on a bus crowded
with backpacking students, took us to Akien (Ancient) Korinthos. In 1896, the American School of Classical
Studies purchased most of the village to start their excavation and
exploration. We took cool drinks under
an awning - two thousand years ago we might have seen Paul's trademark in the
selvedge. Greece is a land of awnings:
to shade windows, rest or work areas, to extend houses and tavernas, to shield
crops, and to protect drying grapes from the sun above and the dust
beneath. Currants take their name from
Korinthos. When Paul was there, the
Panhellenic Isthmian Games were being held every two years: under the auspices
and strict rule of the nearby city of Korinthos. Suddenly, there would be a huge temporary population under
canvas. Certain temples also would see
times of popularity, and the need for tented accommodation - but of a
questionable kind. The term for Paul's
occupation could cover work in leather; this might have included pieces of
military armour, and sporting equipment - used at the Games and in the smaller
city Gymnasium: protective hand-straps and punch bags for boxers, and throwing
thongs for javelins. Paul, and the
Corinthian Church found it easy to discuss doctrine in sporting terminology.
Outside the Museum were the ruins of the Odeion and
the quarry-like Theatre. From above
the seating of the Theatre, we looked northwards towards the blue waters of the
gulf; in the middle distance, there was the significantly level ground of the
Gymnasium site, and the remnants of the Asklepieion - the religious medical
centre. We walked down the side of the
Theatre to see the inscription, which mentions Erastus, the city's clerk of
works, who was, almost certainly, Paul's friend referred to at the end of his
letter to the Roman Christians.
The Museum had much to illustrate First Century
life. There is a rich array of oil
lamps, bronze mirrors (for which Korinthos was famous, and from which Paul
twice illustrates in his letters to the Church), various statues and models:
one of children dancing to a flute accompaniment, and another of a youth
wearing a celery crown from the Games.
One room contained the models of separate human parts: some of the
votive offerings from the Asklepieion; these may have been in Paul's mind when
he wanted people to see the Church like a healthy human body - not like the
separated limbs and organs hanging in the Hospital Temple, but as the healthy
whole bodies next-door in the Gymnasium.
Rural and military life also provided local illustrations for the
apostle.
We left the Museum, to walk through the ruins of the
city centre - excavated since its purchase.
The car park behind the shopping street is the huge tip of rubble that
had protected the ruins for almost two millennia. Here were the remains of the once sophisticated city, a Paris of
its day: temples, public buildings, markets, the shops and workshops (perhaps
including where the apostle had worked for Priscilla and Aquila), the Agora
(where he joined the public orators), and the Bema (where he stood before
Gallio, Proconsul of Achaia, to receive the official judgement on Christian
preaching throughout Achaia, for the time being, in opposition to Jewish
persecution). In the Second Epistle,
the Bema of Christ was no doubt compared with this.
Eight miles away is Kenchreae, the east facing
harbour for Korinthos. Seismic
disturbance has caused the Mediterranean coast here, to settle about a metre
since ancient times. This beautiful
anchorage is most evocative of the character of Phoebe, a godly deaconess in
its Church, and presumably an international businesswoman, who was to deliver Paul's
letter to Rome. Paul wrote the Thessalonian
Letters from Korinthos, First Corinthians came from Ephesus, Second Corinthians
from Macedonia, Romans from Korinthos, Ephesians from Rome.
(Maud Gresham)
Strabo, Plutarch and Pausanias, provide literary
data about the ancient city, which is corroborated by extensive archaeological
research. Some claim it to be the most
excavated site in the World. Jewish
inscriptions from the period and locality are mainly funerary. There is evidence of there being a
synagogue site. One of the three bronze
foundries examined, revealed the oven for heating, a workbench, and the
channels, which brought water from the Spring of Peirene. The fine coloured bronze of Korinthos
contained 14% tin; and besides the exported Temple gateway for Jerusalem, there
were the splendid mirrors. The first
centuries were a time of extensive building - again a source of illustrations
in the letters.
In Ephesus, the ruins of the theatre are still
there; it could hold 24,000 - a tenth of the population. Acts chapter 19 describes Paul's eventful
stay in this business centre of Asia Minor – it flourished during the first
century. Its streets and buildings
have been extensively excavated. The
Prytaneion (Town Hall) contained the office of the State Clerk - who quelled the
riotous event in the theatre that stood to its north. Among Paul's wealthy and caring friends were some of the
Asiarchs - 106, both men and women, have been identified in the city's 3,500
extant inscriptions.
The Temple of Artemis (Diana) had been rebuilt
several times over the centuries; its style then - in AD 54, but commenced six
hundred years earlier - was Ionic. It
was the first monumental edifice to be built in marble, and the largest single
piece of architecture in the Greek world.
Little is left of it today, but there is ample evidence of the worship
of the goddess - in the form of statues and coins. "Temple-warden", the definition used by the State
Clerk in Acts, is confirmed in inscriptions; there is even mention of a man
named Demetrius, who held such an office.
References to silversmiths also abound, and their shops have been
located in the Agora. A Roman official
is recorded in a theatre inscription as having promised a silver image of
Artemis for display at civic meetings there.
Another inscription identifies the workplace of a coppersmith (2 Timothy
4:14, 15). An area within the city
stadium was allocated for animal baiting and gladiatorial killing (see a
metaphorical reference in 1 Corinthians 15:32 - written from Ephesus). Remains of a first century lecture hall, or
auditorium, have been recognised (Acts 19:9).
A Latin inscription in Beirut Museum mentions
"Queen Bernice, daughter of King Agrippa I, and King Agrippa II, her
brother": as restoring building work carried out in Caesarea, by Herod I.
"No stranger may enter within this balustrade
round the Temple enclosure. Whoever is
caught is alone responsible for his death which will follow." Two large examples of this inscription have
come to light, and illustrate Paul's trouble in Acts 21:28. They would be a familiar sight to the
people of the Gospels. This
prohibition no longer threatens the Gentiles coming in the Spirit to the God of
the Jews (Ephesians 2:13-19).
Just as Sir William Ramsay established the accuracy
of Luke's narrative in Acts - on land, James Smith has done the same for his
descriptions of life at sea. The
account of the voyage to Rome, and the shipwreck on Malta, rest well within the
context of the first century world, both scientifically, and as seen in
contemporary literature. Luke and
Aristarchus, who travelled with Paul to care for him, would appear as his
servants, and ensure him respect. The
centurion on the voyage, like all the others of this rank in the New Testament,
is seen as level-headed and responsible.
A late date is suggested for the Day of Atonement (The Fast); hence
October AD 59 is the favourite. Fair
Havens is protected by small islands, but is otherwise open to half the
compass. The centurion would be the commanding
officer, as the ship would be on state grain service. Phoenix is identified as the modern Phineka, after some argument
by commentators such as Professor F. F. Bruce. The rich detail of the storm is full of nautical
terminology. The Sea of Adria, is the
contemporary name for the Central Mediterranean. Time for the journey, the soundings off Malta and coastal
geography, all satisfy the scrutiny of yachtsman Smith, whose scholarship and
familiarity with the area, qualify him well.
Paul journeyed along the Appian Way: one of the
great Roman roads of southern Italy - designed in 312 BC, during the censorship
of Appius Claudius. Horace wrote of
Appii Forum in "Satire".
There are Roman inscriptions of at least seven synagogues in the city:
Campenses, Augustenses, Agrippenses, Suburenses, Volumnenses, Hebrews, and
Olive Tree. The seven hills hold a
great significance for readers of The Book of Revelation. In a late tradition, Peter is linked with
the Marmerite Prison, at the foot of the Capitoline Hill; it is also possible
that Paul's final imprisonment (2 Timothy 4) was there. Two houses are associated with men referred
to in the letters of Paul from Rome: Clement (Philippians 4v3), and Prudens (2
Timothy 4v21). The Church of Saint Paul
Outside the Walls, may cover the site of an earlier Constantinian church, which
in turn replaced an oratory marking the place where Lucina, a Roman matron,
laid Paul's body to rest in her vineyard.
Josephus tells us that the Emperor Vespasian's
Temple of Peace (built in AD 75) housed
his international art collection: which included, above all, the prized vessels
of gold from the Jerusalem Temple.
However: "their Law and the purple hangings from the sanctuary he
ordered to be deposited and kept in the palace." In AD 81, the Arch of Titus was built as the south gateway to
the Roman Forum; this contains the depiction of prisoners carrying the Menorah
…, Table of Shewbread, sacred trumpets, a chalice, and tablets fastened to
poles - all of which appear as passing through this same Arch - a scene which
will for ever be etched on my mind!
At Laodicea, an inscription dedicated by a freed
slave, to a Marcus Sestius Philemon, has come to light. The Philemon of the Epistles lived in
Colossae, but the coincidence is startling.
The Turkish government (Islamic influenced) long prevented excavation
work at Colossae.
The Romans made Patmos the place of banishment for
prisoners of conscience. Eusebius
identifies the reign of Emperor Domitian, as the time of John's exile
there. The letters to The Seven
Churches, in The Book of Revelation, are arranged in an order, which probably
reflects the ancient postal route.
Smyrna is best known through literary material: the
writings of Strabo.
Pergamum was noted for its statuary - until Emperor
Nero transported much of it to his own city.
It was here that the first provincial temple was dedicated to a Roman
Emperor: Augustus, according to Tacitus, and where the Emperors Trajan and
Hadrian were later worshipped. The
second century BC had seen the founding of the great library - of perhaps
200,000 volumes. The word
"parchment", for animal skin used as a writing surface, comes from
the name of this city. The great
Altar to Zeus (perhaps Satan’s throne, Revelation 2v13) has been reconstructed
in the Berlin Museum, and there is significance that Albert Speer, Hitler’s
chief Architect, based the great stadium for Hitler on its design; both ruins
are still in situ. The ancient site today reflects the magnificence
of the ancient city; which was also one of the great medical centres of the
time, with its influential Asklepieion (Hospital).
Sardis, in the Lydia region, had a first century
population estimated at twenty-two thousand; it was famous for its gold,
fishing nets and textiles. An
earthquake, in AD 17, so devastated the city that even the topography was
changed. Today, it is a notable
archaeological site.
The wording of the letter to the Church in Laodicea,
may recall the putrid warm springs there, linked with the spectacular white
mineral deposits.
The discoveries of ancient New Testament manuscripts
have been spiced with their own special blend of adventure, and international
diplomacy. In the nineteenth century,
Oxyrhynchus, with its richly endowed "rubbish mountains", produced
the 3,875 documents published as the "Oxyrhynchus Papyri". The Rylands Fragment is thought to be the
oldest extant piece of New Testament manuscript; it is dated c AD 100 or 125,
and was found by B. P. Grenfell, at either Fayum, or Oxyrhynchus, in 1920.
Codex Sinaiticus, the Chester Beatty Papyri, and the
Bodmer Papyri, are other important finds.
The book form, as opposed to the scroll, was probably brought about by
the needs of the Christian congregations.
Professor F. F. Bruce observed: [Even] " ... if
the author [Luke] wrote a decade or two later than the last events which he
records, he was acquainted with the situation that he describes. Having examined Luke's presentation of such
matters as Roman citizenship, the appeal to Caesar, judicial procedure and tenure
of magistrates, A. N. Sherwin White insists that his work is true to its
dramatic date (a technical term for the time of the events described): it does
not reflect the conditions which obtained as little as a generation later. 'For Acts the confirmation of historicity
is overwhelming ... any attempt to reject its basic historicity even in matters
of detail must now appear absurd.'"
Chapter Twenty-three Another Hero in the Family
Whilst I was looking through the bookcase in the
cottage I found a wad of newspaper cuttings - in the back of an old photograph
album. They were all on the same
subject, but an article from the "World Wide Magazine" was the most
graphic.
Charlie was Maud's uncle. In the 1940's, he had been posted to a naval base in a sea loch,
in the western coastline of Scotland.
His small unit looked after the anti-submarine boom, which protected the
temporary docks; these had been built for the servicing of about twenty naval
craft, and were situated well into the loch.
An old harbour, with its fishing village, was near the entrance to the
loch and the position of the A-S boom.
One autumn afternoon, the team spent several hours
servicing the boom. They then set out
across the loch in their motor launch.
Charlie kept his "frogman" suit on - to keep warm. They were hove to and attending to a
buoy. A frigate had recently passed
over the lowered boom, and sailed on its way to moorings higher up the
anchorage. One of the crew noticed a
patch of bubbles surfacing. Charlie
was over the side and descending in a shake.
Almost on the bottom, he found what he suspected: a Nazi U-Boat had
slipped through the defences, by staying close to the frigate as it crossed the
boom.
The sound of the electric motors reached his
ears. He took care not to hit the side
of the hull with his oxygen cylinders.
The craft was in a state of neutral buoyancy, as I say, almost on the
bottom of the Loch. The captain must
have given permission to "blow heads" (clear the toilets), thinking
it safe. Charlie pushed himself clear
of the rail along the top of the conning tower, clear of the jumping wire, and
moved carefully along the deck part of the casing. Here he found the lockers for storing the steel mooring cables. With great care, he manoeuvred a cable to
the stern. Here he wrapped and tied it
round the two stationary propellers and the rudder.
When he surfaced, he spoke to his seniors on-shore
by radio.
He then returned to the U-Boat, found the base of
the conning tower, and hammered out a message to the captain in Morse
code. The gist of it being: a call to
surrender. After half an hour, someone
hammered back: that unless they were set free, the U-Boat would wait for a
current to turn it, and then fire all torpedoes into the fishing harbour; the
submarine would then surface, and shell the village! To make the point, there was the sound of mechanical activity
from within, and with a loud hiss, compressed air was surged into the main
ballast tanks for a few seconds, the escaping displaced water spun Charlie to
the surface - in some consternation.
At first light, the U-Boat drifted towards the boom:
slowly, to make certain the defence had really been lowered. Charlie had not done the setting free of
the submarine too well - he was waiting by the boom. As the submarine cleared it, he was ready with more cable; the
propellers wound it round themselves.
He was in great danger of being sucked through the spirals of water, by
the propellers. Three other
"frogmen" fastened limpet mines below the deck casing, and over the
external ballast tanks. The U-Boat
continued under its inertia. Suddenly
the explosions came. Water mushroomed
into the air: leaving a massively disturbed area of sea.
Charlie found the craft lying on its side in deep
water, unable to surface: gaping holes rendering its main ballast tanks
useless, ... and much worse. …
Charlie was awarded the George Medal; the other
"frogmen" were awarded Distinguished Service Medals. Charlie was the hero of the family.
A note written in fountain pen said, "How evil
war is: the choice between the destruction of the village with its inhabitants,
and the sinking of more allied shipping with huge loss of life ... or the
deaths of the submariners. ..."
Chapter Twenty-four Plan C
My time spent in Geoff's office produced another
result: one evening the FAX machine coughed out an amended price list from the
Medical Rep., with a PS, saying he would "call tomorrow at 9.0 am".
I was in position a hundred metres down the track:
out of sight of any houses. At 10.0
o'clock, I heard his car push through the ford; and, as he turned into the road
down the little valley, I appeared, walking casually in the direction of
Machynlleth. I did not even have to
raise a thumb - it was the expected courtesy to give a lift, out by the
farms. As we neared the first set of
buildings, I dropped a notebook on the floor, and bent down to search for it,
with some difficulty - so much so that the Rep. almost stopped to help me find
it.
I headed for a certain sports shop in Maengwyn
Street.
"I'm meeting my girlfriend in the car park, at
1.30…”
The manager fell in with my plan, which he
understood all too well ... I drank a
mug of coffee in the back room. He
called me into the shop and introduced me to three likely customers - and even
explained my plan to them. It cost me
a few drinks, and a wad of my limited cash: so that, come-what-may, they would
not be disappointed!
Dead on time, we came out of the pub shouting. I threw a few punches at shoulders; they
chased me eastwards along the main street, missed the cutting by the old
cottages, and turned into the main entrance of the car park. Right in the middle, I let them catch up
and floor me with a rugby tackle. Just
at the point: when I was supposed to knock them all to the ground - with faked
uppercuts - and chase them into the distance, things went beautifully
wrong. Feathers of navy blue and gold
came flying - lurches to mind; there were no actual feathers, but things did
fly!
Davy literally flew through the air for a few metres
- in a westerly direction. The other
two skated along the ground in curiously bent and painful positions.
I stood to my feet - aware of a strong smell of
perfume - the kind, which is a derivative of nerve gas! In the rapidly cleared space, stood the
Traffic Warden!
I slumped forwards and grasped her shoulder. An iron grip locked onto my upper arm.
"Cinque", she whispered in my ear, like a
jet turbine.
"Look here, can we talk? Thank you for rescuing me. Can I buy you a coffee?"
Her grip on my arm belonged to another world - far
removed from quiet market towns and tourists - but it cleared my thinking. So: the three women in the cottage down the
little valley were my "Guardian Angels". She drank the quickest coffee east of Brazil.
I did learn from her, that I was an idiot, Gresham
was a thousand miles away; everyone was safe (no thanks to me). Yes, I was a decoy; yes, the Antagonists
were Israeli terrorists; yes, they were on to me - on board a train from London
Euston to Piccadilly Manchester, at this exact second!
" Good-bye!"
To any onlookers, I had just had a tiff with my
unimpressed girlfriend. Parking
offences in Machynlleth must have plummeted to an all-time low, recently.
Chapter Twenty-five Only deranged fools try plan "C"s
I suppose this could be thought of as a new hobby:
baiting the SAS, or whoever they were.
It was my neck in the noose, so I had good reason to want
assurance. My tin cans and pieces of
stretched string around Maud's cottage had yielded nothing.
The Sherlock Holmes trick
Two chairs piled one on top of another, my anorak
carefully stuffed and placed over the top one; and a ball of scarves surmounted
with ancient stereo headphones. The
contraption carefully balanced: so that it moved slightly from time to time, as
the draught from the electric fan turned in its direction. The curtains drawn across, and the
directional lamp switched on - to cast "my" shadow across them. I visited the door for a breath of fresh
air. I shut the door - but with me on
the outside. All was beautifully
executed: full marks!
Noiselessly I moved over the lawn and rounded the
side of Maud's cottage. A movement,
like the stealthy strike of a poisonous female snake, gave the first hint of
trouble. Suddenly: I was spun round,
thrown to the ground, and bent in several original directions. A torch blinded me for a moment.
"Siesta!
Siesta! So its you little
boy!"
Three twists of my pile of vertebrae signalled the
exclamation marks.
"When are we going to learn to leave it to the
professionals?"
Punctuation marks warranted a near dislocation of
the ulna, radius, and humorous; questions, the rending of shoulder tissue. I hoped there would be no further questions;
I dreaded the end of the paragraph, with shear horror.
"Have I made myself understood?" I could hardly speak with her hand over my
mouth. My moan meant, Yes.
"I didn't hear any reply!" This was military talk - amplified with a
personal Morse code and intended for an enemy.
"If I meet you again like this, not only will
your arm be in a sling, but you will be! If luck is on your side, that is! Have I made myself clear?"
The end of the paragraph meant that my face was
pressed into the ground - in an area frequented by cows!
The torch flickered again, and I saw a blackened
woman's face. It was the "night
shift" lady. She wore a tight
fitting black combat suit, of strong material, her long hair was coiled
somewhere in a black Balaclava. In her
last movement, I was caught by an irregular metal shape, which warned me that
she was armed. I do not think jokes
about people having "small arms" are in any way funny, and my guess was
that neither did she.
Her voice was a little gentler, "Try Paracetamol
Plus, if it hurts ... and stop playing Don Quixote. You've no idea what's going on. Hide under the bed clothes 'til it's all over!" The final punch was intended to take all
the breath out of my body - it did.
Indoors, I nursed my wounds - including that to my
pride - sitting painfully in an armchair.
At least it was not my bowling arm.
The next day, a "Get Well" card signed
with crosses, in three shades of lipstick, arrived on the doormat. I decided to nick- name the Amazons:
"The Bronte Sisters"... after Brontosaurus Rex - "Bronte"
is Greek for "thunder". In
the afternoon, I took an envelope containing three of my best watercolours down
the road to their cottage. The door
was ajar, but no one was about. I was
amazed at the interior: it was so typically Victorian - I expected to see Miss
Marple sitting in a fireside chair.
The envelope was left on a side-table, leaning against its ancient
telephone. When I had hobbled back up
the road, "Thanks!" was already written on the kitchen window, in
dark green eyeliner pencil. [I heard
later that the Traffic Warden had won a Women's Judo Olympic Silver, in her
weight: against strong opposition.]
Chapter Twenty-six The Final Battle
The morning broke with the uncertainty of early
September. Its weather might hold, or
turn formidable. Throwing care to the
wind these days, I set off for the high ground and its curious lake. I remembered it was fed by the surrounding
land, but had an outlet overflowing as a stream - which eventually reached the
River Dyfi - and the sea at Aberdyfi.
The screes to the west had a hostile look, which was
in sympathy with the changing weather, and my foreboding. The heather and stiff grasses tugged at my
green rubber boots. I had drawn my
monogram on the outer sides with an indelible marker pen. An interlacing of numerous small gullies,
in this area, crossed the moor; these combined the peat with the land water to
create deep pits of horrible black slime.
I was having a struggle climbing out of one such
deep cleft in the moor, which lay across my path. Suddenly without warning: a powerful civilian helicopter came
above the horizon, about a kilometre and a half away: harrying the moor like a
predator bird - swinging crazily in the air and moving constantly from side to
side. It had blue and yellow stripes
along its white and silver bodywork.
("The machine over the city centre, on the Sunday of the break-in
at Gresham's office!" came to dominate my mind.) I hurled myself into the stagnant water at the foot of the
cleft, rolled over in the terrible stench - rubbing it all over my face and
hair as I did so - and quickly stood up under the overhang of the gully -
pressing my body hard against its side.
The sound of the helicopter came and went as it moved far away; and
then, returning, passed almost overhead.
About ten minutes must have slowly ticked by. Three shots crackled some distance away, as they tried to flush
me out of hiding. They may well have
electronic gear of various kinds, and heat sensing equipment! The strain was telling on my nerves.
Where were my Minders, when I needed them? I thought afterwards, that I must have been
too frightened to pray, but then somewhere in the fear is an inarticulate cry
for help, heard and registered by the Spirit.
Without warning: the whole moor was filled with a
Wagnerian orchestration of sound. The
noise was mainly the roar of military fighter aircraft, combined with the heavy
engine, and blades, of a large troop-carrying helicopter. To my right - along the gully - I could see
two of the V/STOL (Vertical/Short Take Of and Landing) fighter aircraft (the
kind derived from the old British Aerospace Harriers). The air, below their downward pointing turbine
ducts, was totally distorting the moorland landscape into a myriad of
shimmering waves.
Two air to ground missiles stung the moor and burned
into the earth: forcing the, now diminutive, civilian predator to settle; its
blades stuttered to a halt, and drooped - as if in surrender and
dejection. The top of it was just
visible to me, about two hundred metres to the north. The large military troop carrier came in steadily: hovering just
above the ground, it started to disgorge its camouflaged soldiers: about twenty
of them. They moved towards the
silver and white machine, automatic rifles covering the craft for any sign of
movement. As they went to ground, two
of its doors opened, and three men fell out.
They stumbled to their feet; hands clutched above their heads. All the fighter planes rose in a circle
around the moor - like the Valkyries.
Their turbines erupted. They turned
appropriately - and climbed by the kilometre, until they passed though the high
cirrostratus at six thousand metres.
I was just relaxing in my trench, when a young
fellow, not unlike myself, rolled into the ditch from the far side. He had black curly hair, and was wearing a
military denim overall. He turned away
from me, unaware of my presence. The
pistol in his right hand told me who he was.
I gave him my most polished rugby tackle - guaranteed to wind him - and
"accidentally" caught the back of his head with my rigid elbow,
hitting his face into the mud. I half
rose, standing on the back of his knee - a certain sense of dislocation would
simultaneously arrive in his mind.
Gingerly, I pulled his head back, by means of the slack rear of his
collar; he was unconscious. A sharp bloodstained
rock on the floor of the dugout gave the reason - this was not the well-kept
field of the university sports club. I
disarmed him; and, holding firmly to his collar, peered over the edge of the
trench.
My shouts brought a young Major over the crest; two
infantrymen followed him. The
unconscious terrorist and his gun were taken to the waiting helicopter. I recognised him; he was supposedly an Arab
who was studying Marine Architecture at the university. So, in reality, he had been an Israeli
"plant", or "sleeping partner", for a terrorist coven.
I felt decidedly sick.
The missiles might have hit me!
The smoke was still rising from burning moorland! The other three handcuffed terrorists were
also bundled into the troop-carrying helicopter: the first token of a long
imprisonment.
Three soldiers climbed into the white and silver
civilian machine. Ten minutes later:
its turbine started, and it rose to a hundred metres. They flew nose down in a north-easterly direction. The khaki monster produced an enormous
roar and a cloud of exhaust gasses, made a turning climb, and with
characteristic blade resonance, retreated in the same direction. The "chukka- chuck" sound also
disappeared into the distance.
Perspiration covered me, and yet I was
shivering. Huddled in the gully, I
wiped my face carefully, took out the sandwiches and wine, and had my
lunch.
The extra chill of late afternoon woke me. I stood - wondering if the terrain was
really safe. Staying in gullies as
much as possible, I devised a route with overt caution - as a means of
reasserting myself - and made my way back to the cottage: for a long shower,
with extremes of hot and cold.
Chapter Twenty-seven The tidying up
Two days later, I took part in, and enjoyed, my last
service at the farm: a quiet Breaking of Bread, with much thanksgiving. The usual large Sunday lunch followed.
At two-thirty the 'phone rang, and a curt voice told
me:
"The Group Captain will send his car for
you."
After all the flying above the moor, I at least
expected a private helicopter. It was
an emotional parting from Maud, Geoff and Janet. I never like Good-byes, but there was so much for us to rejoice
about. We all embraced, and kissed
tear-stained cheeks. Geoff said a
prayer of thanksgiving for the past months, and committed us all to the Lord's
grace.
At Llanbedr, a small military airfield on the coast,
a twinjet military communications plane was waiting. Two advanced trainers were landing and rolling, but the airspace
was cleared for our take-off. As we
rose from the runway, I had a clear view of an estuary anchorage ... there was
Harlech castle below on our right. The
pilot took the aircraft over Snowdonia, across the coast near Llandudno, and
through haze to a landing in Scotland.
The police chauffeured me by car to my rather cold
flat, where I was left holding an official envelope. It contained the timetable for the next few days.
Day One: this was for debriefing, and the first
press conference - to be organised by a senior police officer of the city.
Day Two: this was allocated for a meeting with
politicians.
Day Three: was for our final press conference, with
the Foreign Secretary in charge.
I rang my Dad first to tell him I was safe and
well. His news was not good; he was
going into a hospice in the next few days!
Kat's parents were effusive, but I only gave them
the briefest of outlines.
I went down to the corner shop for groceries,
feeling weak at the knees and almost tearful. A 'phone call brought Gresham round by seven o'clock.
He settled on the settee, his long legs looking
uncomfortable, and sipped decaffeinated coffee.
"When the police realised how dangerous it was
all becoming, they sent The Kat to France.
In Lille, she caught the high speed Basel train, but left it at
Colmar. She then took the local line
to Guebwiller - in the Haut Rhin.
Here, among the Vosges Mountains, was the isolation which would mean the
health and security we wanted for her."
"What's the name of your contact in the police:
the one who arranged all this?" I asked.
"No joy; I'm not allowed to tell you; but I'll
pass on your gratitude, if you like."
I nodded my sincerest wishes enthusiastically.
"They also arranged for Kat to write postcards
to your Father, and her own folks: ostensibly coming from a walking holiday on
the Normandy coast. They gave the
impression that you had skipped the country together, taken the ferry to Le
Havre, and started exploring the territory of the French Impressionists: ready
for a new thesis. The Pont de
Tancarville over the Seine, via Honfleur to Trouville, and Deauville - for the
regatta and the races - followed by the coastal walk to Houlgate: all carefully faked for you, and designed to keep the 'old folks' happy. They even had you at Caen: so The Kat could
use the university library, and you could both take day trips to Bayeux and
Mont-Saint-Michel.
"All the time, however, she was really at a
safe house in the Vosges Mountains, as I said: spending her time walking in the
marvellous forests, on the west side of the Rhine."
We talked until ten o'clock, then he left to let me
sleep: in preparation for the hard work ahead.
Chapter Twenty-eight Officialdom
The Foreign Secretary swept in, accompanied by his
aides and bodyguards. He smelt of an
expensive bathroom overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. His clothes were perfect: a light grey suit, crisp white shirt,
and stylish fashion tie. The Israeli
Ambassador slipped in after him, wearing a crumpled suit, and throttled by the
only tie in his wardrobe. His family
could probably write a detailed history of Israeli terrorism: from personal
involvement in their own earlier days.
There were formalities, brief speeches, handshakes, and a strong Israeli
hug; before we all parted, to go our own separate ways.
My personal view is that the Antagonists were Bounty Hunters, hoping to do a deal with one of those extremely rich American artifacts collectors and make their fortunes.
Chapter Twenty-nine Meeting The Kat
The morning post brought a curious letter from
America: “Mycene”, a group of businessmen had heard of my experiences, and
wanted to arrange a speaking tour for me - across the States. I wrote a note on the bottom, and faxed it
to Geoff. Twisted Spine brought me
the reply in the evening.
"Dear Joe,
Many thanks for your letter. Yes, this could be a good idea.
Just one word of warning: today you are the
"new baby", tomorrow an accepted member of the family. Do
not expect to receive celebrity treatment all the way though the Christian
life.
Yours, Geoff, Janet and Eve."
Whilst I was out for a run, Kat had let herself
in. I found her packing her things
into a sack. We embraced, and then I
made hot drinks.
"Why are you putting your kit together?"
"I don't think you will want me around, now
you've got religion'."
"What do you think?" I asked.
"If you say, Yes, I'd say you were a
fake!"
"No; it's not OK for you to stay, but I want us
to talk about it first - so you understand properly, and we have no hard
feelings."
Over coffee and cakes in a decorous café, we caught
up on so much. Each of us had a long
list of questions about the other's experiences - through the second half of
the recent Cricket Season.
I spent some time explaining what I thought was the
call to celibacy - the single life.
Jesus taught, that in matters of personal relationships, we must place
this consideration top of the list. It
was a gift from God; and it would be clear whether we had it or not - there was
no question of it being enforced as a condition of entry into Christian
service. It was nothing to do with
becoming a monk or anything. She heard
me out thoughtfully, and we reached the Park by the University. As we walked among the flowerbeds, I put my
arm round her waist in the familiar way, and my hand rested on the contour
caused by her left iliac crest. I
thought a grenade had exploded behind us!
So much for my emotions! Here,
most likely, was my guidance about remaining single.
What was Kat's understanding of the Message? What did she really think, and where would
the future find us?
We took her luggage round in the early evening, and
I helped her tidy up and settle in.
Chapter Thirty A Great Future
So it was that I virtually decided to accept the
invitation to visit America - a sense of excitement, but also the space I
needed to think out my future.
There had been one figure at the two press
conferences that singularly caught my eye.
I had seen him before, perhaps about the city, or within the precincts
of the university; with his dark formal hat, and well cut black overcoat, he stood
out obviously as being Jewish. As we
had finally dispersed, he had waited for me outside the hotel.
"Rabbi Gultmann ... pleased to meet
you." We shook hands.
"I wonder if perhaps you would like to visit
our synagogue, one Saturday morning, and see how we Jews worship
today?"
He spoke with a Scottish accent, but of a man who
was more familiar with
Hebrew.
September was making it clear that the Equinox was
approaching. Fallen leaves covered the
pavements, and yet it was a Saturday morning brightened with an early sunlight
- still officially that of summer. The
Rabbi had informed me that my head must be covered, and that someone would look
well after me in the service:
"We start at nine-fifteen, but come about a
quarter to eleven ... you know we finish round about twelve."
I was not for turning out in a new and ungainly hat,
and walking across the city, to be rewarded with a mere hour of a service:
which interested me greatly. I
overtook an old man and a boy - obviously we had a destination in common. The synagogue stood back from the main
road: behind high railings and gates.
There were no cars. The outside
was rectilinear, built of an almost white stone, and heralding the art nouveau
of the interior design. Inside, my
peripheral vision told me of various memorial plaques, and a notice board - one
poster of which gave a police number to ring in the case of anti-Semitism. I had a strong inclination to take my hat
off, as a matter of courtesy; courtesy demanded, however, that I kept it
on. The Rabbi was surprised I had
arrived in time for the start. A plain
black skullcap was found, and presented for me to keep as a memento - a
"yarmulke" - and a security attendant took my hat.
The Rabbi whispered in the ear of my mentor. The auditorium was large and well lit: by
both the sun and neon lighting. The
pews were round three sides of a space, which contained two special areas. In the centre stood the Bema, or high
platform: where various officials, including the Cantor, sat, and from which
the Torah Scroll would be read; this faced eastwards. The second area was a railed square abutting against the East
Wall: around The Ark - a curtained alcove actually set in the East Wall, and
containing the Scrolls of the Jewish Scriptures (the Old Testament of the Church). The rail was of a fine, gold plated
art-nouveau design, consisting of part-circles and straight lines.
There was a scattering of a mere twenty or so men:
all wearing their own highly individual ornate fashion of yarmulke on their
heads, and with their personal, formal white prayer shawls ceremoniously draped
over shoulders and lower arms.
The congregation were far from settled, when a tall
young man, wearing an undergraduate gown and a large top hat, stood to his
feet. From his position on the Bema,
he started the prayers off. He used a
rapid clear chant, reminiscent of the Russian Orthodox Church; his head nodded
in concentration. We followed in a
Prayer Book - with its first page at what is normally the back of a western
book; also, the Hebrew is on the right-hand page, the English translation is on
the left. Some parts were chanted,
some said privately in an undertone, but always at great speed. This struck me as strange; because the
instruction to "meditate" on the Scriptures implies a certain
didactic and reverent slowness. It was
almost as if "The Era for truly serious worship had not yet
dawned". The Scripture passages
included Psalms 100, 19, 115, and 147-150, which are said every morning of the
week, in private devotions. Men
continued to come in, and, as they walked to their places with their friends,
they greeted each other with, "Shavat Shalom".
At last I saw the first ladies arrive; two sat
behind the men at ground level - they were most likely disabled, all the others
were in a balcony around the three sides of the hall. I only saw one lady following the service; she stood centrally,
on the front row of the balcony.
The rest talked quietly throughout most of the three hours. This was more than could be said for the
men: as numbers increased, so did the noise of their chatter - a man behind me
swore! A youngish fellow countered
this, close by on my left, by making a particularly powerful
"Shhh!!!" There was silence,
however, during: the bringing of the Torah Scrolls from the Ark, prayers for
the Heads of State, the Rabbi's Sermon, and the Notices.
The precocious young zealot came down from the Bema,
but continued to duck and weave about the congregation - acting as a general
factotum. The Cantor (Leader of the
Singing) took over. He had a
self-composed academic look about him, was about thirty, and had a short
well-kept beard - I was impressed, never have I heard such a fine voice outside
professional opera. The Rabbi sat by
the Ark, facing the congregation.
There was a limited amount of stained glass -
representational, as Kat would say, and brightly coloured. Then, I almost choked with emotion: on each
side of the Ark were Twentieth Century Menorahs - with nine lamps (neon
bulbs). At each front corner of the
rail were similar Menorahs with eight "lamps".
The time arrived for drawing back the curtain of the
Ark. A huge scroll of the Torah was
brought out; its cover of brilliant blue velvet was decorated with silver
motifs, a large silver crown surmounted the whole. It was taken to the Bema in procession, around the far side of
the central space. This allowed some
members of the congregation to kiss a tassel of their prayer shawl and then
touch the scroll cover with it.
A man in front of us adjusted his shawl, and the
knot of a tassel hit me in the eye!
The service books, and the decorative bags for yarmulkes and shawls, are
kept in lockers under the seats. There
is a subscription charge for each pew.
The book rest was hinged separately for each person - so that it could
be pushed upwards, during times of standing and turning to the East. Various men who were celebrating personal
and family occasions were called to the Bema: to add blessings after readings
from the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), and the
Prophets. A book of the set readings,
again in Hebrew and English, was also used in the pews. It was significant that in passing from
Isaiah chapters 60 into 61, verses 1 to 9 of the latter, were omitted; this was
the passage read by Jesus in the Synagogue at Nazareth, and applied on that
occasion to Himself!
The notices were in English, but accompanied by
friendly mock complaints from the assembly - usually about the unsociable times
of the services for the coming New Year Festival (Rosh Hashanah).
At the start of the Sermon, also in English, there
was a hardly-perceptible chorus, from behind me, of: "My dear friends and
brothers ... " - obviously the well-worn opening words of a million
sermons. It lasted ten minutes. Rabbi Gultmann talked about the Menorah of
the Temple, nodding in my direction.
He said that true light was the coming of the Mesheeah (Messiah), who
would bring understanding about God to all Nations. Until his coming, there would be no peace or light in the
world. None of this could happen,
until the true Jews earnestly prepared themselves for The Day of Atonement (Yom
Kippur) by serious repentance.
The final prayer, with a response, was led by a
young teenager, and closed with a most energetic and joyful singing of the
final blessing.
I asked:
"Do all Jewish ladies wear wigs?"
"Only the devoted Orthodox!"
"Why do you omit Isaiah 61 verses 1 to 9, and
many other passages such as Psalms 2, 22, 31, 45, 69, 110, and Isaiah 52 verse
13 to the end of chapter 53 (I had done my homework)?"
"I don't know. I must ask the Rabbi some time."
"It does seem strange that the people who
treasure the Jewish Bible so much, should purposely miss several important bits
out!"
"I think you know why that is...!"
Chapter Thirty-one Good-Bye
An uneasiness began to develop about the trip to
America - I wish I understood more about Divine Guidance. It was obvious really: “The Mycene” were
crying out for my help and support. I,
in my turn, had received so much practical help from the Greshams; now it was
my opportunity to give, and I had to fulfil my own ministry of helping
others. I had so many questions to ask
God:
Would
Kat become a Christian?
Would
we draw closer together, or would I be led to someone else?
Where
would I live?
What
should I do with my life?
Which
church should I join?
What
do I need to learn about the Holy Spirit?
How
can I be strong in suffering, persecution and temptation?
How
can I grow in my faith: holy and close?
I have almost finished reading the Bible through for
the first time, and am looking forward to starting again, and learning more
helpful verses by heart. I have found
several books on the Internet about W. F. P. Burton: the famous Preston missionary,
and with these, I am slowly building my library of supportive books.
As
they say: “We do not know what the Future holds; but we know Who holds the
Future!” Indeed a passage of the best of good books, which has stood off the page for me, is: “‘For I know My plans that
I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you, and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”
(Jeremiah 29:11)
I had decided to walk home from the Hospice, which
was in North Preston. On the corner of
Cross Street and Guildhall Street, I saw the back of an old man with a stoop;
his white hair had a slightly greenish tinge.
I ran to speak to him. Our chat
took place in a curious café nearby.
He was not as sharp as he used to be, but as my story unfolded, I could
see the tears of joy forming in his old eyes.
He, like others of his craft, had seen Jesus use their hard work and difficult, to
produce ‘pillars’ for His Eternal Church.
